But... cows do drink cow milk, that's why it exists.

You’re likely thinking of calves. Cows (though admittedly ambiguous! But usually adult female bovines) do not drink milk.

It’s insidious isn’t it?

So, this joke works only for natives who know that calf is not cow.

I guess a more accessible version would be toast… what do you put in a toaster?

Here's one for you:

A funny riddle is a j-o-k-e that sounds like “joke”.

You sit in the tub for an s-o-a-k that sounds like “soak”.

So how do you spell the white of an egg?

// All of these prove humans are subject to "context priming".

My brain said "y" and then I caught myself. Well done!

(I suppose my context was primed both by your brain-teaser, and also the fact that we've been talking about these sorts of things. If you'd said this to me out of the blue, I probably would have spelled out all of "yolk" and thought it was correct.)

Notably, this comment kinda broke my brain for a good 5 seconds. Good work.

Well, it works because by some common usages, a calf is a cow.

Many people use cow to mean all bovines, even if technically not correct.

Not trying to steer this but do people really use cow to mean bull?

No one who knows anything about cattle does, but that leaves out a lot of people these days. Polls have found people who think chocolate milk comes from brown cows, and I've heard people say they've successfully gone "cow tipping," so there's a lot of cluelessness out there.

> Many people use cow to mean all bovines, even if technically not correct.

Come on now :0

I just complained non-natives would have a problem distinguishing between a cow and a calf, and you had to bring those bovines.

To make it easier, would just drop that in my native language, the correct term for bovine is more used to describe people with certain character, that animal kind.

If calves aren’t cows then children aren’t humans.

No, you're thinking of the term "cattle". Calves are indeed cattle. But "cow" has a specific definition - it refers to fully-grown female cattle. And the male form is "bull".

Have you ever been close enough to 'cattle' to smell cow shit, let alone step in it?

Most farmers manage cows, and I'm not just talking about dairy farmers. Even the USDA website mostly refers to them as cows: https://www.nass.usda.gov/Newsroom/2025/07-25-2025.php

Because managing cows is different than managing cattle. The number of bulls kept is small, and they often have to be segregated.

All calves drink milk, at least until they're taken from their milk cow parents. Not a lot of male calves live long enough to be called a bull.

'Cattle' is mostly used as an adjective to describe the humans who manage mostly cows, from farm to plate or clothing. We don't even call it cattle shit. It's cow shit.

Colloquially, "cow" can mean a calf, bull, or (female adult) cow.

It may not be technically correct, but so what? Stop being unnecessarily pedantic.

In this context it is literally the necessary level of pedantic yes?