Butcher – from Flemish bone-hackers to English goat-slayers

A butcher may seem ordinary, but the words tell a different story. In Flanders the sign reads beenhouwerij, literally ‘the bone-hacker’s shop’. Standard Dutch and Danish define the trade as slaughter with slager and slagter. English borrowed French bochier, a goat-slayer. German Metzgerei goes back to food-portioning, Italian macelleria to the Latin market, and Portuguese talho to a cut. Welsh, Breton, and Basque kept their own meat words. This card explores how Europe names the butcher, from bones to goats to markets, with Flemish daily speech keeping one of the most vivid images alive.