We were raised that "meat" describes any type of muscle from ANY animal and that you have be more specific when describing your protein otherwise ( I even remember getting a lecture about this once ): chicken, pork, beef, horse, emu, buffalo, etc. Then from there the cut of meat: fillet, ribs, tenderloin, chop, leg, etc.

My understanding from literature classes is that beef is from middle English, "bos" the word for a "cow" and "bof" for cows/cattle; then has changed over time to become being pronounced "beef".