How 20 Animals Got Their Names
The word animal derives from a Latin phrase for a "breath" or "soul," anima. although it first regarded in English within the overdue 14th century, it remained fairly unusual until the 1600s, while its use as a substitute for the older phrase beast—which as soon as stated any dwelling creature, however, today has wilder, more ferocious connotations—won out. beast, in flip, became followed into English from french someday across the early 1200s. but just because it was sooner or later outdated by means of animal, the beast itself took over from deer, which was used pretty loosely in old English to refer to any wild animal.
positioned another way, the history of animals and beasts are all a piece confusing—even though fortunately, the man or woman names of different types of animals aren’t almost as blended-up. that’s now not to mention they don’t have their personal testimonies to tell, though.
1. PENGUIN
No person is completely certain why penguins are known as penguins (no longer helped by means of the reality that they have been once upon a time referred to as arsefeet), but the fine principle we've got is that penguin is a corruption of the welsh pen Gwyn, literally “white head.” the name pen Gwyn at the start implemented to the exceptional auk, a vast flightless black-and-white seabird of the North Atlantic, and it is presumed that sailors to the south Atlantic either confused the flightless black-and-white seabirds they noticed there for auks, or just used the identical phrase for each creature.
2. ALBATROSS
That is an odd one: inside the sixteenth century, the Arabic word for a sea eagle, al-ghattas, turned into borrowed into Spanish and have become the Spanish word for a pelican, Alcatraz (that's in which the island with the jail gets its call). Alcatraz becomes then borrowed into English and has become albatross in the past due seventeenth century—but at each point in history, the word carried out to completely unique animals. an opportunity principle claims that albatross and Alcatraz may genuinely be unrelated, and alternatively, albatross will be derived from a Portuguese word, Alcatraz, for one of the troughs that carried the water around a waterwheel. although that’s the case, however, the word nevertheless in all likelihood commenced existence like every other call for a pelican, with the bucket of the waterwheel in all likelihood alluding to the pelican’s massive bill pouch.
3. RHINOCEROS
rhinoceros actually manner “nostril-horned.” the rhino– part is the same as in words like rhinoplasty, the medical name for a nostril activity, whilst the –cross part is the same root determined in words like triceratops and keratin—the tough, fibrous protein that makes up our hair and nails and rhino horns.
4. OSTRICH
the English word ostrich is a corruption of the Latin avis Struthio—avis meaning “hen” and Struthio being the Latin word for the ostrich itself. in flip, Struthio comes from the Greek name for the ostrich, strouthos eagle, which actually method “big sparrow.”
5. HIPPOPOTAMUS
hippopotamus literally means “river horse” in greek. it might not appear just like a horse, however, it really lives in rivers—and let’s be honest, it looks extra like a horse than an ostrich looks as if a sparrow.
6. RACCOON
raccoon is derived from an Algonquin word that literally means “he scratches along with his palms.” before that was adopted into English, raccoons had been called “wash-bears” (and nevertheless are in several other languages, such as dutch and german), which refers to their habit of washing their food earlier than eating it.
7. MOOSE
moose, too, is thought to be an Algonquin phrase, actually meaning “he strips it off,” a connection with the animal’s fondness for tearing the bark off bushes. likewise, the muskrat is perhaps a derivative of an Algonquin name meaning “it's miles red.”
8. TIGER
our phrase tiger is going all the manner back to historical greek, however, the greeks in flip borrowed the phrase from Asia, and it’s a thriller wherein the word truly originated. one concept is that it comes from higher, a phrase from Avestan (an ancient Iranian language) that actually way “arrow” or “sharp item,” but that’s the best conjecture. speaking of huge cats …
9. LEOPARD
confusingly, leopard literally way “lion-panther” or “lion-leopard.” versions of the phrase pard were used to mean “leopard” or “panther” because the days of historic greek, whilst Leon become the greek, and subsequently Latin, phrase for a lion. the word lion itself, meanwhile, is so old that its origins in all likelihood lie inside the impossibly ancient languages from which Egyptian hieroglyphics derived. any other complicated big catcall is …
10. CHEETAH
it derives from Chita, that is the Hindi word for “leopard” and in flip probably comes from a Sanskrit phrase actually which means “noticed.”
11. PYTHON
it greek mythology, the python became a full-size dragon-like serpent that was slain via the legendary hero apollo. apollo left the serpent’s corpse to rot in the heat of the solar, and the website online of its loss of life eventually became the web page of the oracle of Delphi (known as python, to the historic greeks). in the end, the call python itself derives from a Greek word literally which means “to rot.”
12. ANACONDA
Boa constrictor's name is much harder to clarify. In spite of the fact that boa constrictor is just found in South America, all things considered, the name was brought there from somewhere else. One likely hypothesis guarantees that it may once have alluded to a gigantic snake of southeast Asia that was known by a Tamil name, anaikkonda, truly signifying "having murdered an elephant."
13. HYENA
The name hyena follows back to the Greek word for a pig or a pig, his, which obviously alludes to the spiked hairs on the creature's back.
14. WALRUS
Walrus was acquired into English in the eighteenth century from Dutch, however, it might have its roots in the Old Norse word rosmhvalr, which originated from another name for walrus, morse. Prior to at that point, walruses were known as ocean elephants, ocean bulls, ocean dairy animals, and even ocean steeds.
15. PANDA
Panda was obtained into English in the mid-1800s when it initially alluded only to what we'd currently call a red panda; in reference to the goliath highly contrasting panda, the word just goes back to the start of the twentieth century, when it was mistakenly thought to be identified with the red panda. In any case, the panda is thought to originate from a Nepali word, Nigálya-pónya, that may actually mean something like "stick eating the feline bear."
16. OCTOPUS
Octopus truly signifies "eight-footed" not, regardless of what numerous individuals think, "eight-equipped" or "eight-legged." Additionally, as opposed to prevalent thinking, the plural of octopus truly isn't octopi. It would be if octopus were a Latin word (wherein case its plural would pursue indistinguishable standards from words like organisms and graduated class), however, the octopus is really gotten from Old Greek roots. So to be completely, hypercritically right, the plural of octopus ought to be octopodes—however, why entangle things? Feel free just to consider more than one octopus a gathering of octopuses.
17. TORTOISE
Nobody is completely certain why tortoises are called tortoises, in spite of the fact that most would agree that none of the hypotheses we need to browse is especially complimenting. From one viewpoint, the tortoise may be a subordinate of a Latin word, tartaruchus, truly signifying "of the black market." On the other, it may originate from the Latin tortus, signifying "bent" (which is likewise where the modifier convoluted gets from). The real Latin name for the tortoise, testudo, was a lot less complex, in any case: it essentially signifies "shelled."
18. MEERKAT
The name meerkat was acquired into English from Afrikaans, the Dutch-birthplace language spoken in South Africa. In its local Dutch notwithstanding, the meerkat is another name for the guenon, a sort of monkey found in sub-Saharan Africa. How did the two words become confounded? Nobody knows.
19. KANGAROO
There's an old society historical background that cases kangaroo signifies "I don't have the foggiest idea." As indicated by the story, on his entry in Australia, Skipper Cook asked a local Australian what the odd-looking animals bouncing around out there were. He answered, in his local language, "I don't have the foggiest idea"— which, to Skipper Cook, sounded something like "kangaroo." It's a slick story, however likely a fanciful one, not least in light of the fact that the odds of a local Australian not realizing what a kangaroo was are quite thin. Rather, it's probable kangaroo likely gets from a neighbourhood Guugu Yimidhirr word, maybe essentially signifying "enormous creature."
20. PLATYPUS
What's more, finally, remaining in Australia, the duck-charged platypus' name actually signifies "level footed." Reward truth: On account of its peculiar appearance, the platypus was likewise once known as the duck-mole.
This rundown previously kept running in 2019.
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