1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Calf

CALF. (1) (A word common in various forms to Teutonic languages, cf. German Kalb, and Dutch kalf), the young of the family of Bovidae, and particularly of the domestic cow, also of the elephant, and of marine mammals, as the whale and seal. The word is applied to a small island close to a larger one, like a calf close to its mother’s side, as in the “Calf of Man,” and to a mass of ice detached from an iceberg. (2) (Of unknown origin, possibly connected with the Celtic calpa, a leg), the fleshy hinder part of the leg, between the knee and the ankle.