Why is the word "dog" such a mystery? | ANIMAL WORDS

[@goonhoongtatt1883]

Malay speaker here, from Malaysia. No, orangutan doesn't have the connotation of "old". "Orang" simply means person/man and "hutan" / "utan" means forest. Man of the forest. Also, the word pangolin comes the Malay "pengguling", meaning "one who rolls up". But interestingly, the modern Malay word for pangolin is "tenggiling". I don't know how that came to be though.

[@thomaseriksen6885]

Never knew I was a pengguling, but happy to learn something new

[@joshgriffith7554]

When they said it was the old man of the forest I was wondering what they would think about finding a baby “old man”

[@Neenerella333]

​@@joshgriffith7554 The homunculous baby Jesus in European paintings with old man faces?

[@gaufrid1956]

You are right. Although in Bisaya the words are different ("tawo" is "person" and "lasang" is "forest"), it's easy to interpret the meaning of many Malay words. After all, before the Spanish Colonial period, Malay was the Lingua Franca in the Philippines.

[@Oi_Oi_Oi_54]

Very correctly so.

[@Aboz]

How does a lawyer survive in shark infested waters? Professional courtesy.

[@JanetLClark]

Very, VERY sick of that.

[@zogzog1063]

As a trial lawyer of 25 years experience, and for one in my life being serious, there is a lot of truth in that. Yes, sharks in shark infested waters are an endangered species. Unlike the medical profession where they draw ranks, lawyers do not hesitate to sue each other.

[@philroberts7238]

Q: What is the difference between a lawyer and a fish? A: One is a scum-sucking bottom feeder, whereas the other is just a fish.

[@plateoshrimp9685]

I've liked Words Unravelled from the start, but I think you guys are getting better at it. It seems more comfortable, like you know each other better. Super fun. Love it.

[@jwolfe01234]

I get the same impression, moreso with Jess than with Rob. Rob has his own channel, and to my knowledge Jess does not, so I wonder if that has something to do with it. It felt like a few episodes ago a switch was flipped and the show hit its stride.

[@johnlumsden9102]

Can confirm. I did the reverse, picked up at episode 10 I think, and went back to watch the rest. Awesome work.

[@illinoisan]

If I wasn’t so interested in the subject matter, I could turn the sound down and just enjoy their smiles.

[@ZA-wm6mm]

The interaction between a gay guy and a female is always interesting

[@stevewakefield5001]

​@@ZA-wm6mmRob has a wife he refers to "her"

[@jodiemartin4094]

I (Australian) was discussing the dialectal variations ladybird / ladybug with a Canadian friend and explained the history of the term, and he said “But it’s not a bird, it’s a bug!” And I said “Well that’s the difference between etymology and entomology” and it was one of my happiest moments as a linguist.

[@smdrocker]

Those who confuse entomology and etymology bug me in ways I can't put into words. 😅

[@alaindubois1505]

I'm not Australian, but have to tolerate living here. As a child, I heard children say 'ladybird' and this is just as iritating as saying 'peanut butter' for 'peanut paste'. or 'gas' for 'petrol/petroleum' - a liquid fuel. A big difference between humans and other animals is 'religion' or the idea of 'believing something' - instead of experiencing facts for oneself. The French use 'piscine' for 'swimming pool', so perhaps 'fish' is something that swims? I came for a meaning for 'dog'. Is that a method to get someone to join in? So, what is the meaning of 'Doggerland'? There must be a first written entry for dog somewhere. Are dogs like dags that follow animals around?

[@Cassandra-..-]

My favorite t shirt has a mantis religiosa on it with the words “prey, love, eat” below.

[@betsywoolbright8059]

There are some truly clever shirts/bumper stickers/etc. out there, and that is one of them.

[@Neenerella333]

I need one of those.

[@OneEyedJacker]

They decided to be efficient and do all 3 simultaneously.

[@Azeria]

the worst part of this show is that it ends

[@WordsUnravelled]

Thanks for watching!

[@stevewakefield5001]

Absolutely!

[@ingridhindell2436]

❤❤❤❤

[@MeanBeanComedy]

I bet you $5 it'll start up again soon in a few days.

[@doug.jones.88]

I love how virtually each episode includes a "We can cut that..." moment which then doesn't get cut. They make the episodes (even) more charming and fun!

[@joadbreslin5819]

Undoubtedly there are numerous other similar moments that we don't see.

[@joet.4713]

Have you considered doing a show on words that appear vulgar but aren’t, such as bumfiddler, shuttlecock, and vagitus? An additional bonus would be to see Rob in the crimson-red mode for an entire show. Thanks for the great videos!

[@zyxw2000]

Insults: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bGG5fJqJmZiqg5I

[@williamyalen6167]

@joet4713 Great idea!💡 That would be rather titillating!😂

[@betsywoolbright8059]

I feel like "niggardly" might fit into this category as well.

[@cstacy]

When you talk like this, it gets my uvula excited.

[@fmmaj9noname332]

Perhaps combine it with words that were naughty or mean, but no longer are, such as poppycock and nice.

[@kenhammond3810]

You mentioned the word "peculiar". There's a town in western Missouri named Peculiar, and the story is that when they decided to incorporate the town, they chose several other names first, but were told that those were already taken. They were told that the name should be "unique or peculiar", so that's what they chose.

[@martinstubs6203]

They should have taken "Unique"!

[@What_Makes_Climate_Tick]

We are taught that "fish" is its own plural, but having worked near fish experts, they say "fishes" when referring to multiple species, not merely multiple individuals.

[@CyFr]

Suppose sleeping with the fishes is the correct term because you're most likely swimming amongst many species.

[@IanKemp1960]

As with fruit (singular) fruit (plural) fruits (multiple types!!)

[@evanmasterpierround1169]

You’ll hear “persons” and “peoples” for when we want to clarify that there are many distinct types (or groups) of human

[@philroberts7238]

Presumably 'fishes' was more common back in King James' (First and Sixth) day, seeing that we have the biblical 'parable of the loaves and fishes'.

[@andrewharris4268]

Rob getting squeamish at ticks rather than booby hills is an unexpected development.

[@mikeyhau]

The Grand Tetons has the same meaning as booby hills.

[@CharlesStearman]

@@mikeyhau The Paps of Jura (a pair of rounded hills on the Scottish island of Jura) also has the same meaning.

[@parkpatt]

He's working on it!

[@Brunoburningbright]

​@@mikeyhauThe human imagination is sooo predictable.

[@andrewharris4268]

@@Brunoburningbright’Wow, your boobs remind me of a nearby pair of well rounded hills’ said no guy, ever.

[@TedLittle-yp7uj]

I was astonished that you did not mention that "deer" (der in OE) originally meant "animal" and continued to do so for centuries. Shakespeare mentions "mice and other small deer." Of course, in German, "Tier" means animal.

[@Wintertalent]

And in Dutch it's "dier".

[@matt_the_musician]

I think Rob talked about the word "deer" meaning "animal" in a video on his own on his KZbin channel, RobWords.

[@Graaskaegg]

In Swedish it's "djur".

[@dougallee7066]

If memory serves, Holofernes and Nathaniel have a lengthy and pedantic discussion about the names of fallow deer at various ages in Shakespeare's 'Love's Labour's Lost'. The words 'sore', 'sorel' and pricket spring to mind, but not stag.

[@mariiris1403]

And in Norwegian it's 'dyr'.

[@ChristopherDavisDesloge]

These are some of KZbin and the internet’s best videos. Charming, edifying, intelligencia : )

[@blackoak4978]

I was playing a game once where you had to pick only specific cards in a grid. You played with a team member and one of you knew which were safe and which were not. They had to give you one word clues based on the images on the cards. You played against another team and the first team to select all the right cards won. So a single clue that applied to multiple CORRECT cards was key to winning. My buddy have me the clue etymology and was really proud of it. I had no clue how the history of words had any relevance to any of the images. In fact I felt stupid after not getting anything from it. I found out later that he was thinking of entomology which indeed made a lot more sense.

[@JaniceinOR]

That's Codenames. It's a really fun game, and can be quite challenging. 5x5 grid of cards. ( I couldn't think of the game's name, but was able to find it with an internet search)

[@zzzaphod8507]

I was just thinking that people who confuse etymology and entomology bug me in ways I can't put into words.

[@juliashearer7842]

Did you want to be number one?

[@andyp5899]

You just had to say it

[@1lightheaded]

Does it bug you?

[@franblaye9639]

Good one!

[@chenilleoneil1289]

Thanks dad.

[@tummy_fritters]

"The more you try to understand the rules of language, the more you realize that there just aren't any." So perfect.

[@EmpyreanRagnarok]

"English is not a language. English is three smaller languages in a trenchcoat trying to get into the adult movies."

[@JimFortune]

There are many many many rules in English. It's just that no two agree.

[@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648]

@@JimFortune It also depends on who compiled the dictionaries and grammar books. Being a language of sets of peoples both conquered and conquering, yet somehow managing to find a way to get along, the result has become a macaronic mix.

[@paulcally739]

Rob's comments about earlier words for bear being linked to honey are interesting. Bear in Czech is medvěd (pronounced med-vied), inherited directly from proto-Slavic. "Med" is literally honey and "věd" is science or more generally knowledge or "know" (vědět), so medvěd is literally the one who knows where the honey is. Perhaps this wasn't restricted to just Slavic languages in the past.

[@davidioanhedges]

The similar Russian name Medvédev also means bear ... which means a Russian Bear was the President of Russia ...

[@GunnarMiller]

The German for mead is "Met".

[@bonkreta]

I think "ved" is not "to know" or rather "to lead to" in this case, so medved is the one leading you to honey

[@GunnarMiller]

@@paulcally739 "Medved" is a Jewish name one sometimes encounters in America en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Medved .

[@zoranocokoljic8927]

@@davidioanhedges Medved is Russian for a bear. The ending -ev/-ova/-ovo is used to show belonging, so Medvedev would mean "he that belongs to the bear", or in other case "son of a bear"

[@armyofthewolves]

Two exceptionally pleasant people, discussing interesting linguistic topics, that I was not subscribed to until just now. How did I let that happen?

[@KR-ll4dj]

You guys so remind me of--oh, about 60 years ago in the very early days of public radio--a snippet they'd air hosted by author (and Dante translator) John Ciardi called "A word in your ear", wherein he'd delve into the etymology of some particular word. The one I most remember, because he had no smoking gun, was "copacetic". His best guess was that it evolved from the interaction as Blacks in New Orleans witnessed the interchange between customers and Jewish merchants whose response to some sort of Yiddish "how are you?" was "kol b'tzedek", literally "all with justice", essentially "I'm ok, you?". But surely there's been subsequent scholarship--if anyone would know, you two must. I await with bated (spelled correctly) breath.

[@EricaGamet]

Did you listen to "A Way with Words" on NPR a ways back?

[@KR-ll4dj]

@@EricaGamet Indeed I did.

[@torpor8652]

American elk are named after european elk (moose) by english settlers who had the word ancestrally, but had never seen one in centuries. They just remembered that it was a big deer, so they named the biggest deer they found in their new environment elk and called it a day.

[@lakrids-pibe]

The moose (Alces alces) is called "elk" or something similar in a bunch of germanic languages. German: Elch, swedish: älg, danish: elg, dutch: eland, etc. So, english speakers in North America using the woth "elk" for the wapiti (Cervus canadensis) is the source of confusion. The dutch "eland" is also used for big antelopes in Arcrica.

[@okapijohn4351]

@@lakrids-pibe Alce as the scientific name for the Moose/Elk (Alces alces) is also the word for the animal in Portuguese, Spanish, Italian etc. And the french élan. And it has the same root as Elk.

[@Myrtlecrack]

That's basically what torpor8652 said there. English settlers named the North American Elk(Wapiti) after the animal called "Elk" in Europe, and what the Europeans call "Elk" is called a "Moose" in North America. Moose comes from the Algonquian word moosu, one of the Native American words for what Europeans call "Elk".

[@torpor8652]

Exactly. TY for providing the algonquin etymology, didn't know where "moose" came from

[@maritaberndt6200]

Elch

[@apcolleen]

Even gorillas hum to themselves and do a little wiggle when they eat something that makes them happy.

[@QTGetomov]

Gorillas are liars too. When Koko was asked by the anthropologist who taught her sign language (I forget her name now) what happened to the sink which was ripped from the wall, Koko said her kitten did it! The lie was really important though. It shows gorillas have individuation and realise that other people (or gorillas) don't know what they know.

[@WordsUnravelled]

That's adorable.

[@2424Lars]

There's a youtube channel that has filmed their raven (Fable the Raven) teaching itself to hum songs

[@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648]

@@QTGetomov "Just kitten, human"

[@philpaine3068]

I was reading a diary written by the French explorer Samuel de Champlain. Champlain was one of the earliest explorers of Canada and a kind of "founding father" of French Canada. In his diary, he refers to a river in which he found "many hippopotami." Champlain was a very down-to-earth man, not given to flights of fancy, and usually very accurate in his descriptions. But I figured it out. Champlain had a classical education, and would have been familiar with the Greek word "hippopotamus." Of course, he would have never seen one, but read descriptions of a large animal, comparable to a horse, that spent a lot of its time in rivers. He was talking about Moose! Btw, in Canada, we more often use the word "wapiti" instead of "elk," It comes from Cree, the most widely spoken First Nations language in Canada. It is also the name used without exception in Canadian French.

[@MrFearDubh]

It's interesting about the original word for bear being lost and replaced with a word meaning brown thing. In the Irish language, the names of many dangerous/sacred animals stopped being used and alternatives took their place. Like the original word for wolf being replaced by "mac tíre" meaning son of the land; or the original word for spider being replaced with "damhán alla" meaning fierce little stag or ox. There are many other totem animals whose names have been replaced in Irish as well.

[@OneEyedJacker]

I’ve always been fascinated by etymology and your channel is a delight. Thank you!

[@HamishMcNaughton]

My understanding is that the Norwegian word for bat, “flaggermus” derives from “flappy mouse”, which I love and think we should adopt in English

[@Galenus1234]

The same is mostly true in German, where it is "Fledermaus". "Fleder-" on its own doesn't mean anything in modern German (maybe it did several centuries ago, dunno...), but just from the sounds if it it evokes very strong "flight-related" associations as there is "fliegen" (to fly), "Flügel" (wing), Feder (feather). Interestingly also English native speakers seem to perceive a bat as being something like a mouse with wings, since there are several cartoons that are a "play" on that.

[@OddSheep-Out]

@@Galenus1234"Fleder" might be related to "Flatter(n)".

[@royjohansen3730]

English does have an old similar word for bat: "flittermouse". I love it, and you should use it! 🙂

[@HamishMcNaughton]

@@royjohansen3730 Love it!

[@nikibordeaux]

When I was younger, I thought they're called "Ledermaus" (leather mouse) with an added F at the front to indicate the flapping 😄

[@KusacUK]

And let’s not forget that in Italian, bufalo is the male animal, and bufala is the female. So bufalo mozzarella is… unlikely. It’s mozzarella di bufala.

[@blechtic]

"Unlikely" does sound better than "disgusting".

[@svsguru2000]

higher protein content

[@koenth2359]

Maybe the buffalo is a 'male trans birthing animal'...

[@vojtechpikal183]

@@topherthe11th23 Well, you can have apple wine or fruit wine. Drink created by the same process but from different fruit or mixture of fruits.

[@zztopz7090]

But in English buffalo is gender neutral.

[@johnkitchen4699]

I have a friend who is ambisinistrous - totally useless with both hands!

[@jimb9063]

Heh, typical right handed bias in that word. Ned Flanders was right, er, I mean correct!

[@ftumschk]

* that would be "ambisinistral", I think

[@CheeseWyrm]

I'm often described as having "2 left feet". So would I be pedosinistral / sinistropedal ? Pedobisinistral? Bipedosinistral? Sinistrobipedal?

[@Brunoburningbright]

​@@CheeseWyrmJust put on your dancing shoes like no one is watching.

[@DrDoug7]

@@Brunoburningbright A left-handed compliment

[@angaudlinn]

I love how Tolkien brought back the original Shark meaning in his writings, where this is the name of Saruman among the oppressed hobbits. :)

[@dalegallacher7074]

Great job guys I’m 63 I learnt more new things from this video than I have learnt since school

[@Sgt__Hawk]

If you are looking for a German counterpart for "shark" meaning a bad person, it would most likely be "Schurke".

[@martijndekok]

Yes, it's pretty much the same in Dutch "Schurk"

[@aliaskvasthilda]

And "skurk" in swedish.

[@WayneKitching]

​@@aliaskvasthildaAnd in Afrikaans, with the same spelling as in Swedish.

[@WayneKitching]

Never knew of the link between it and shark!

[@davidkantor7978]

I learned that word in German class, but hadn’t connected it to Shark. Interesting.

[@AnMal01-h6b]

To me, the most interesting thing about the 'moose'/'elk' story is how little time it took before the British English speakers were convinced that 'moose' was the correct English word for the animal. The word 'moose' of course doesn't show up in English until English speakers encounter the same animal in North America. At that point, most English people have never seen a real live European elk (moose) since they were already extinct on their home islands, so the first large horned animal they come across in North America they call 'elk' - probably because it reminds them of descriptions of European elks and think this animal must be something similar, rather than actually thinking this new animal is the same thing. Meeting with the animal that actually is the same as a European elk, they instead adopt a form of a native American word for it. But here's the part that interests me most: Educated Brits in the UK realise from the start that this is a confusing naming practice and put up a brave fight to make people say 'elk' about at least the European elk instead of moose. And they almost succeed. If you look at dictionaries of BRITISH English, until at least the 1950s (and my guess is, even later), they recommend this way of using the word. Many older Brits I've spoken to have agreed that this is the correct usage, and confirmed to me that at least when they talk about the animal here in Europe they use the word 'elk'. However, get anyone under the age of seventy in Britain and they will say 'moose'. In just a generation or so, they have completely forgotten that the animal was ever called 'elk' and if I bring it up they often try to correct me saying I have it mixed up with the North American elks that are not the same animal.

[@chrismoule7242]

This...been there, done that...

[@donwald3436]

Wait so you're saying calling them elk is like calling them indian?

[@AnMal01-h6b]

@@donwald3436 I doubt very much that the elk/moose you meet in the woods will object to whatever you call it - so, no! It's not like calling them indian. 😄 But it's fun to follow the development - first we had one English word for the animal. Then we had two, one each side of the Atlantic. Then the newer word was imported to the old word's territory and caused academic confusion, so people thought: 'We need to fix this in dictionaries!' and for a while it looks like they are going to win. Then, in just a generation, the newer word takes the lead and almost completely crushes the old one.

[@Myrtlecrack]

The word "moose" comes from the Algonquian word moosu

[@gabsy6443]

Oh I am so confused now 😮

[@owendavies5036]

How about some Welsh insect names: Woodlouse = Moch bach y coed (little wood pigs) Ladybird/Ladybug=Bywch goch gota (spotty red cow) And my personal fave is a term for a: Butterfly = Iâr fach yr haf (Little chicken of the summer) Keep up the excellent work!

[@loisdungey3528]

Little red cow! I love it.

[@Fairfairlass]

As a child we always referred to Woodlouse as “little pigs” or “wood pigs” and I still think of them as such. My mother was Welsh.

[@sl1763]

@@loisdungey3528can you imagine “little redcow” as a Lady Bug. I agree ~ love that name. I’m not sure those little Lady Bugs would approve of this given name.

[@kisakisakura6663]

Fun fact: we are slowly but surely learning that language is not unique to humans. I'm not talking about just body language, which is inherent to most animals, but verbal language that includes dialects, names, and enough structur to be judged as being taught instead of instinctual vocalizations. Personally I find it quite beautiful how the boarders we set to distinguish the human species from animals become blurrier and blurrier.

[@tomzito7907]

There's the old joke about the agnostic dyslectic insomniac stayed up all night wondering if there is a dog.

[@timsynakedtarot]

I love you two, I could listen to you both all day you bounce off each other so well. 😊

[@rkozakand]

Another animal word is 'porcelain' which literally means 'little pig'. When Europeans first saw porcelain they were amazed at how smooth and shiny it was. They named it after the Latin word for a large seashell that cameos were carved from, since the interior had a similar extremely smooth and shiny surface. The opening of the seashell, in turn was called 'little pig' because it reminded the Romans of a certain part of female anatomy which in both Latin and Greek was colloquially called 'little pig'.

[@deborahchasteen3206]

Oh, this is wonderful! Thank you.

[@EricaGamet]

Stop! You'll make Rob blush! 😀

[@MercuryBlether]

Oh and are porcelain and pork connected then? 😅

[@arthuruppiano3211]

On the subject of hidden cows, the legal term "chattel", meaning moveable property, comes from the same root as "cattle", both ultimately deriving from the Latin "caput", meaning "head". And of course in English we might talk about, say, "forty head of cattle", which is a bit etymologically redundant.

[@BarbaraRoback]

Speaking of cows, I heard that "daughter" derives from "the one that milks the cows."

[@adrianblake8876]

Another hidden cow is "boulimia" meaning "hungry as a cow/ox" in Greek (the word "bous" in Greek refers to both genders)...

[@joelsmith5938]

45 minutes for this episode? Not long enough. Glad I found this channel.

[@idontlikeitproductions3509]

“Duckbilled platypus” has been a pretty strong source of annoyance for me because in Australia we don’t say duckbilled platypus, we just say platypus. Why add “duckbilled” to the name? Do you have 30 other platypus species you can confuse it with?

[@andrewhammel8218]

European explorers of Madagascar did not dub them "lemurs" because of their cute faces. They did so because the animals make scary cries in the night (to communicate with each other) that sounded to Europeans like ghosts.

[@WNVenables]

orangutan = orang hutan = "person of the forest". No suggestion of the person being either male or female, young or old. Bahasa has no gender, like Hungarian, Turkish, ...

[@terryhunt2659]

'Man' and its cognates (in Germanic languages) was originally genderless, meaning 'human', with additions (e.g. 'wif-', leof-' to indicate gender). This inclusive meaning lingered in English, but has become confused and overlooked with the parallel rise and domination of the masculine-only meaning.

[@michaelladerman2564]

You were good until you used the word "bahasa," which simply means "language" (any language) in Malay and Indonesian. For example, in Malay, English is Bahasa Inggeris and an English person is "orang Inggeris", whereas Malay is Bahasa Melayu and a Malay is orang Melayu. By the way, although utan is a way to pronounce hutan (jungle) in Malay, just as 'ot is a way to pronounce hot in English, Malays carefully distinguish between Orang Hutan, who are actually human beings who live in the jungle, and orangutan, the ape. Also, about gender in Malay: absolutely right that there isn't any gender built into nouns. The way to distinguish a male animal from a female animal is to use "jantan" for male and "betina" for female.

[@davidroddini1512]

If Turkish and Hungarian have no gender… How do they reproduce? 😜

[@Andrew_McCann]

Dandelion - my grandmother used to call them "pittly-beds", because drinking dandelion tea would make you "pittle" (or urinate) the bed. We're from north eastern England for context.

[@rhapsag]

The common French name for it is 'Pissenlit' ("pee in bed") - even though our word 'Dandelion' is borrowed from French. Apparently 'Dent-de-lion' is also used as a more polite alternative.

[@Neenerella333]

In Venetian Italian, my friend said they called them some version of "Pisacan" because of where they grow (in disturbed soil, along paths and roads where we walk them)and doggies pee on them.

[@Fairfairlass]

Oh yes. “You’ve been smelling dandelions” a phrase I often heard in the distant past.u

[@victorlloyd5271]

Great fun!! I watched about half of the clip and paused long enough to purchase a copy of Jess' book for my Kindle. Thank you!

[@hatac]

The dog, pig, hog question raises the question of whether this is a Pict ending that has survived. We have so few words from that language that, as far as I know, we don't know its language group fully. It may even be from the pre Celtic ice age cultures of the region. The genetics implies ice age and definitely pre Celt.

[@davevasquez5010]

You two have become one of my top five favorite podcasts in the last couple of weeks.

[@Tonyblack261]

I recently discovered that some sources say that the word "penguin" is based on the Welsh "pen-gwyn" literally "white head" - the Welsh name given to the great auk.

[@TonyP_Yes-its-Me]

The German for "Placenta" may translate as "womb cake", but the word "Placenta" actually does mean "cake". Placenta cake was a dessert in ancient times, and we adopted it many years later.

[@agnesmilewski]

In Austria, the pancake is called "Palatschinke", which also comes from "Placenta"

[@elizabethwadsworth5167]

Max Miller of Tasting History made an ancient Roman cheesecake called a placenta.

[@anglend]

@@agnesmilewski Sounds like it would come from Palačinke, a Balkan crepe.

[@raempftl]

​@@anglendIt does and that word is related to placenta.

[@Padraigp]

Yes i came acrross this in some recipe once and was like ooh gross! Then realised it was just cake phew!

[@Phi1618033]

The word "dog" probably originally meant an adult male hound -- similiar to how a bitch was a female hound -- but the words swapped so that dog came to refer to the whole domesticated species, both male and female, while hound came to be used only for a specific type of dog used for hunting game. There are words in German and Dutch that can be related to dog, such as the Dutch word geducht, which means strong and formidable, i.e. masculine. Hence, a dog is a masculine hound.

[@ccvcharger]

I wonder if that has any connection to the usage of “you dog” in older cartoons, which I presume referred to men who chased after women romantically? It’s slang from long before my time, so I can only make that presumption about its meaning based on how I’ve seen it used.

[@danielch6662]

Der Hund. 😂

[@Mewobiba]

The association with geducht and similar words doesn't seem implausible, but do you know of any more concrete evidence than that? It seems too weak to make statements as specific as yours. @ccvcharger the trail for 'dog' goes cold in Old English (so like, 12th century or so), not the 1920s.

[@irtnyc]

That's a lot of suppositions without evidence. Etymology requires more than opinion.

[@Phi1618033]

@@Mewobiba I'm afraid it's just speculation for now

[@jawsbert]

Several years back I saw a headline from somewhere in Scandinavia about an elk and was very confused, and then looked at the article and it was a moose. The explanation I found online is that elk was originally used to refer to that animal, but when settlers in America who had never seen one before saw a different huge deer, they started calling it by that name

[@tynovel]

Talking about animal words, Singapore, is possibly the of the few countries named after an animal. Singa is Malay for lion, pura is Sanskit for city.

[@alanmon2690]

England is named after those brutish people the Angles which were humanish and humans are animals.....

[@HuwRichards-e2z]

However, Kuching, the capital of Sarawak, means 'cat' in Malay; but the town is actually named for a hill (Bukit mata kuching) which was a hill (Bukit) where a fruit known as 'cat eyes' - 'mata kuching' grew

[@JohnHazl]

There's also Sierra Leone, "Lion Mountains"; and, in a round-about way, the Philippines. The Philippines were named that by Spanish explorers, after King Philip II of Castile. Philip is originally a Greek name, Philippos, meaning "fond of horses": philos + hippos.

[@arwenwestrop5404]

In Dutch a female cat is called a 'poes' and the male is a 'kater'. They are both also called 'kat', which is the neutral form. Regardless of the etymology, I was taught that the Dutch 'luipaard' (leopard) doesn't mean 'lui paard' (lazy horse) but 'luip aard', sneaky character. Dandelion tea is delicious and definitely useful as a diuretic, so not to be drunk after a certain time in the day for exactly that reason! Nowadays Salukis have their own horses and they work together with a hawk. They ride to the hunting ground, because otherwise they're tired out if they have to run there. The moment the hawk takes off to find prey in the desert the Saluki keeps its eyes on the bird and takes off once the bird starts to circle in the air to show where the prey is. They still hunt this way in the Middle East!

[@hanswurst2220]

InGerman it is "Katze" (female) and "Kater" (male)

[@ErwinRode]

@@hanswurst2220 Ja, unfortunately, a 'poes' in Afrikaans -- a sister language of Dutch -- means female genitalia! Yoy could imagine the red faces ...

[@MattMcIrvin]

@@ErwinRode Well, we definitely have that pairing in English too.

[@dompiepom]

I really love the series, I do. I like the hosts, the way Jes tilts her head in amazement like a puppy and Rob’s full frontal nerdity. There’s just one thing: Jes’s vocal fry; the croaky, champagne cork about to pop sound she makes at the end of sentences. I can’t help myself imitating it.

[@pressb]

"Full Frontal Nerdity" now that's a T-shirt.

[@WordsUnravelled]

There's always at least one comment on my voice, and all I can say is that I'm content with the way I speak and don't plan to change it. Appreciate your kind words on the show, and thank you for listening! "Full frontal nerdity" is fabulous. :) - Jess

[@Anne-Enez]

​@@WordsUnravelled Jess, there is no problem with your voice. The point is that the vocal fry of USA voices indeed sounds so strange for european ears... As this podcast is based on the comparison between UK and US english, your typical vocal fry is thus fully part of it, as well as the perfect stylish UK accent of Rob. That's you and that's all! And we love it!

[@WordsUnravelled]

@@Anne-Enez Thank you, Anne! ❤

[@Brunoburningbright]

​@@pressbIt's brilliant. It's adorable and it's no doubt intended with love.

[@Jonathan_Strange]

❤ Thank you! That just brightened my day, and was a whole lot of fun to watch!!

[@JobiWan144]

40:55 "True carnivore" makes sense biologically, especially if you think of "true" meaning ultimate or Platonic ideal. Jaguars are apex predators, meaning that they hunt animals, and nothing hunts them (scavenging a carcass doesn't count). Here's hoping you discuss the "JAG you uhr" vs. "JAG war" pronunciation debate in which we engage between the sides of the Atlantic.

[@tynovel]

Orang utan, from Orang Hutan is just man of the forest, or more specifically 'forest people'. Pagolin is from pengguling; guling means to roll up (e.g. a mat), pe- (morphed to peng- in front of words that starts with g) is the prefix that is similar to the english suffix -er, so penggulling can be translated roll upper, or roller upper.

[@GunnarMiller]

Germans pronounce it "Oh-rong UH-tang"; my wife finds the way Americans rapidly say "Uh-rang-uh-tang" as one word hilarious.

[@DeanBatha]

Rob mentioning Manchester made me recall the Grand Tetons National Park in Wyoming.

[@zetectic7968]

Also the Paps of Jura (Scottish island)

[@ftumschk]

The seaside town of The Mumbles in South Wales was so named because the hills looked like breasts when viewed from the sea.

[@jonrolfson1686]

Many years ago my daily drive into work on a military installation in the western U.S. passed a small, marvelously symmetrical, stand-alone mountain that was called Squaw’s Tit. The idealized ideation that underlay the name was readily grasped. The frank Anglo-Saxon name of the feature has no doubt been altered in recent decades. It must be wondered if a similar nomenclatural fate is in store for Western Wyoming’s more craggy, higher, and more well-known peaks.

[@Jeff-si7ni]

In southern Colorado the "Spanish Peaks" are a pair of mountains that natives called "breasts of the Earth."

[@Jeff-si7ni]

The name Manchester has always baffled me. Why isn't it Womanchester?

[@RabidJohn]

This brought back an old, forgotten memory. When I was a kid in the 60s I was told that smelling dandelions would make you wet the bed.

[@josephkanowitz6875]

ב''ה, the root in particular is a potent diuretic.

[@steve-4045]

I studied a bit of Norwegian before a trip last summer. A phrase that I recall (but might misspell) is “Bjørnen spiser elgen,” “The bear is eating the moose.” So Norwegian is one of the languages in which a form of “elk” is used to mean “moose.” I never got to use the phrase at all. Even though I took a train across the mountains, I never saw a bear or a moose, much less see the former eating the latter.

[@mariiris1403]

It's correctly written. :-)

[@steve-4045]

@@mariiris1403 Thanks.

[@mariiris1403]

@@steve-4045 I've never used that phrase, either. 😂 I've seen mooses, but not bears. Another phrase: "Elgen spiser epler i hagen hver høst." ="The moose eats apples in the garden every autumn." Side note: "Elg" or "elgen" is often used as collective singular. Could be one, could be several.

[@DoNotFear696]

THANKS YOU GUYS FOR STANDING UP FOR ENGLUSH LANGUAGE AND EUROPE. YOU ARE AWESOME AND YOU GOT A NEW SUBSCRIBER 🙋‍♂️

[@randalmayeux8880]

Hi guys! At my grandfather's house in Louisiana the surrounding piney woods were full of ticks. When any of us kids would come in from playing, the first thing my mom would do is make us strip off our clothes and get inspected for ticks. One way to remove them without leaving the mouth parts of the tick imbedded in the skin was to take a match, light it, let it burn for a few seconds, blow it out, then immediately touch it to the tick's abdomen. This caused them to retract the soda straw-like mouth parts. Then you could remove the tick easily.

[@AlyraMoondancer]

When I was a kid and we came in from the woods or the fields, we'd usually check our heads for ticks. If we found one, we used a cotton ball soaked in rubbing alcohol to remove it safely. Those were dog ticks, which were relatively easy to spot; the ones we worry about today are the tiny deer ticks which carry Lyme disease.

[@margaretfriederich9731]

Wow! Thankyou for this tip! In Germany we have to be very careful about ticks! We carry a tick removing card. It us made of plastic, looks like a credit card and has a special slit in it to pass between the tick and the skin. Then lever the tick out and pull the mandibles out.

[@rhapsag]

Methods involving application of heat or any substance (alcohol, butter etc.) are generally advised against nowadays, since it can cause the tick to regurgitate its stomach contents, thus increasing the chances of transaferring pathogens to the host. Applying alcohol to the skin *after* removal of the tick might be a good idea to disinfect the skin surface (although would probably have no effect on whatever pathogenic material might be deposited under the skin).

[@JaccovanSchaik]

1. My favourite garden path sentence: "Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." 2. The Dutch word for leopard is "luipaard", which obviously has the same etymology, only the literal meaning is, confusingly, "lazy horse". Which makes no sense at all. 3. We have the word "pissebed" in Dutch, but here it's a woodlouse instead of a dandelion. Not really sure why.

[@zetectic7968]

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." That is a joke by Groucho Marx.

[@pierreabbat6157]

"Kameelperd" is Afrikaans for giraffe. The second part sounds like it means "horse", but it's actually the "pard" of "leopard".

[@FelixAtagong]

The Flemish dialect word for dandelion is pissebloem, bloem meaning flower and piss... well... you got that one....

[@CuoreGR]

The "lazy horse" for "leopard" was used in a comedy sketch "Wat als Van Dale een echte klootzak was" (˜ "What if Webster was an absolute asshole"), in which an adventurer says "Sir, I found a fast feline" and the dictionary creator replies "Fast feline? Hm. We shall call it... lazy horse!"

[@HerzausStahl]

@@zetectic7968 and most germans can't translate it correctly to German and Deepl/Google can't also(!) and it took me a long time to get it ;-)

[@qwertyca]

You missed an opportunity to talk about the Aboriginal Australian language that also called a dog a "dog".

[@Padraigp]

Now THAT is interesting!

[@brittakriep2938]

In german language name of german breed ,Great Dane' is called , Deutsche Dogge '. When i was young, every large mastiffstyle dog was called Dogge. Usual word is Hund, you call some dogs hound.

[@TornadoTromboss]

@@brittakriep2938 They were other breeds like Englische Docken, Englische Tocken or Englischer Hund. But Docken and therefor Dogge came from the english word dog. so dog came first

[@brittakriep2938]

@@TornadoTromboss : I also assumed that when first Mastiffs came to HRE , the word dog was misinterpretet as breed name.

[@coyotecreekband236]

You guys are so fun. Thanks for giving me information I never knew I wanted to learn.

[@alchemist6098]

Just loved this discussion. I’m always interested in the derivation of words and the evolution of language. Thank you. This was delightful and informative way to start my morning.

[@ArildTofting]

You didn’t mention “horse”. This is an interesting word, because a variant is “ross” (sound switching again). This is still used in another animal name: walrus. In Norwegian we use another word for horse, namely “hest” (Old Norse “hestr”), but we still call the walrus “hvalross”. There is also a heather named “røsslyng». It is named so because it was used for horse fodder. I am not sure how “hestr” fits in, but I guess there may be a common root somewhere.

[@CheeseWyrm]

That's interesting, because in the days of yore, the person who looked after the horses for an establishment/inn/stables, etc was called an Ostler. This sounds like it could've derived from "ross" (Rostler?), or "hest/hestr" (Hestler). Now that I write this - it occurs to ask: from where does the term Horse "Rustler" derive?

[@i-bux]

„Ross“ and „Heiter“ are actually synonyms of “Pferd” (horse) in German.

[@eamonquinn5188]

Totally unnecessary, but I think Im in love with Jess and absolutely adore Rob, and thank them both for this delightful show

[@ericfielding668]

In English we use dog for one animal and dogs for more than one animal. In Polish, there are three forms depending on the number of dogs: one, (two through four), and five or more. Having separate spellings of the noun based on the number of animals implies dogs were important in Polish culture.

[@pierreabbat6157]

This is not specific to dogs. Most Slavic languages do this to all count nouns.

[@ChasFink]

Speaking of different words for "dog", I've always been fascinated that the Polish word is "pies" (pronounced in one syllable as "pyess") but the word in Russian - which you'd think would be similar - is "sobaka" (собака) - not to be confused with "ciupaga" (pronounced "tsewPAHgah") which is a Polish mountaineer's axe-headed walking stick. I'm not fluent enough in these languages to research the etymology.

[@pierreabbat6157]

@@ChasFink Собака is from an Iranian word related to σπακα, the only attested Median word (other Median words are reconstructed from being borrowed into Persian and other languages). There is пёс, but it's not as common.

[@paulohagan3309]

@@pierreabbat6157 How did an Iranian term become a loan word in Russian?

[@pierreabbat6157]

@@paulohagan3309 I don't know. Ossetia is on the border between Georgia and Russia, but the Ossetian word is completely different: куыдз. Собака is attested in Old East Slavic.

[@callicordova4066]

water lawyer, sea attorney - how funny!

[@jamesmoore9511]

On the east side of Washington State USA near the Yakima army firing range there is a small conical mountain called "Sqaws Tit". Love your site - keep up the great work.

[@schildkroete]

The German word for placenta (Mutterkuchen < Mutter 'mother' + Kuchen 'cake') might be related to the word placenta from Latin. In Latin, placenta actually meant a flat type of cake, with the English word placenta being a figurative description of the placenta. So German may have calque-translated the Latin word and then added on mother to make it more specific to motherhood and pregnancy.

[@indef2def]

It probably wasn't an addition in German, exactly, but rather "placenta uterina" being the Latin medical term when it was originally calqued, with the qualifier subsequently dropped in other languages.

[@Padraigp]

Its just the word for cake. Placenta is a cake not often used now but it is still a word for cake. Mother cake isnt even related to placenta its just mother and cake. Placenta is just saying something in a way that is demure ..oh your birthing pancake has plopped on the floor madam. Or i see your gee muffin is slipping out there maam! 😂

[@Padraigp]

​@@indef2defabsolutely. We have old 2800s medicall books and thats exactly what it says! It has little pictures you can lift up the flaps i adore it like a pop up book.

[@HuwRichards-e2z]

Placenta is a layin medical term for the English word 'afterbirth'; it seems to me that in the last century or so we have been replacing English words that might have been considered slightly rude, or not used in polite conversation with latin medicalised equivalents. Other examples would include: uterus, vagina, penis

[@leigha8131]

Regarding saying “psst psst” to cats, I’ve always assumed it gets their attention because it sounds like a squeaking mouse or small bird chirping.

[@shishinonaito]

You clearly have never heard a mouse or a bird if you really believe they sound anything like psst psst 😅

[@AlmightyRawks]

From a biological standpoint this actually makes sense, simply because cat ears are attuned to very high pitched sounds (which their prey make). Now we could narrow our vocal cords and go 'peep peep' to get their attention, but a psst does the trick. They simply listen out for this frequency more than deeper ones.

[@Brunoburningbright]

Whatever. It works. It makes their ears twitch.

[@DenkyManner]

​@@BrunoburningbrightI don't think there's any sound that doesn't make a cat's ears twitch

[@counter10r]

I wonder if there's an etymological thread similar to calling pigs with "sooey" or cows with "come boss" (though those both connect to the Latinate names, though I guess su is equally Germanic)--and I see some online etymologies that posit that puss was derived from the call.

[@neskire]

A card sharp is a person who uses skill and/or deception to win at card games. However, many say "card shark". And yet, the latter meaning seems to be the original one, according to this video.

[@gerardomalazdrewicz7514]

Tangentially related: the animal on the Argentine Rugby team shirt was a yaguareté (spanish spelling) until last year. During a South African Tour in 1965, a local journalist guessed wrong between jaguar and puma, and the nickname Puma stuck. Last year, the animal in the shirt was changed to a Puma (scratching head, why?)

[@ristoalanko9281]

In Finnish, there are many "other" names for bear, like "honey paw" and many un-translatables, because mentioning the real name would call the bear to bring damage to your family, cattle and bees.

[@nancyreid8729]

Don’t forget the arachnids are related to Arachne, who was the weaver with the nerve to challenge the goddess. She won, but was turned into a spider for her hubris.

[@illinoisan]

The calamari is complementary. No squid pro quo.

[@suegha]

Love it! :) :) :)

[@philandrews2860]

We can also talk about the pros and cons of frozen prawns

[@OmegaSparky]

@14:14 Rob does a hard "Nope!" on ticks. 😂 Totally agree.

[@ottoillian8795]

Chiggers are a kind of mite that can bury under your skin and make you itch for days.

[@antoninbroz9588]

Just a small remark to the word bear. I am Czech, therefore a Slav and the word for bear in almost all Slavic laguages is something like "medvěd/medved/medveď " etc. med = honey, vědět (in Czech) = to know. So "medvěd" can be translated like "the one who knows where the honey is". And yes, together with this word there goes the legend that there was a lost original word for the creature that got lost because the people were afraid to call (upon) the creature.

[@IanKemp1960]

"The more you try to understand the rules of language, the more you realise that there just aren't any". Perfect!

[@dreamingwolf8382]

As someone who actually studied this in depth in college for a long time, the only (and I do mean only) thing which seperates HomoSapiens from the rest of the animal kingdom is simply our ability to ask the question "What makes us different?" (and not the physical act of asking it, but rather the formulation of the philosophical process which leads to the distinction in the firat place).

[@jonrolfson1686]

super-cogito, ergo superfluus sum

[@Brunoburningbright]

Methinks we doth protest too much.

[@andrewharris4268]

But not all humans are capable of formulating this philosophical process. This doesn’t make them less than human. Why indeed should there be something that separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom? We already have our biological separation. Isn’t this sufficient?

[@BillPatten-zh6lx]

The family "Homo Sapiens" is just one type of Homonid, so it not only separates us from the animal kingdom, it also separates us from the other homonids (although based on recent discoveries, this may not be true).

[@jasoncdebussy]

I don't think you studied anywhere near enough 🤡

[@rava67]

Keep in mind that a "panther" isn't really one specific thing. It's a term applied to the melanistic (dark-colored or "black") variant of both the jaguar and the leopard. It has come to more commonly refer to a melanistic jaguar, however, because they thrive better than melanistic leopards and are therefore more common (though still quite rare). You're just more likely to be successful being a black animal trying to camouflage in heavy jungles and dense rainforests as a South American jaguar than you are being a black animal trying to camouflage in dry grass as an African leopard.

[@TheSpiritombsableye]

So close but wrong.

[@CheeseWyrm]

It's my understanding that Panther (genus Panthera) is a group that includes Lion, Tiger, Jaguar, Leopard, Cougar/Mountain Lion/Puma, Snow Leopard - regardless of colouration

[@lakrids-pibe]

A panther is not necessarily a black panther. That is not and has never been the meaning of the word "panther". And it is not associated more with jaguars than any other big cat.

[@carolinejames7257]

As some have pointed out, there is the scientific genus Panthera, which includes a variety of large cat species. They're correct in that. Those who say you're wrong, however, are incorrect. If they check a variety of dictionaries, such as the Cambridge, Oxford, and others, they'll find several definitions of the word, and that your usage is correct and usually the first definition given. That is, a panther is a leopard, usually a black one. Some will add that there's also a specific North American usage, where panther also refers to a puma/cougar. So there is definitely a scientific genus term, but in everyday usage there are several possibilities, but the most common is usually black leopard.

[@rava67]

Do a Google image search on "panther" and 99% of what you get is pictures of black jaguars. That is the *common* usage.

[@Musketeer009]

Some advice for Jess. The 'qu' in French is not pronounced like the 'qu' in English. In English we pronounce it 'kw', but in French is is pronounced 'k', or 'c'.

[@EdwinHofstra]

Quoi?

[@paulohagan3309]

@@EdwinHofstra An exception, I think?

[@ShiftySqvirrel]

@@EdwinHofstra "Quoi" is pronounced that way because of the "oi" which is pronounced /wa/. This is entirely separate from the "qu", which is there for historical reasons, since many "oi" originated as "ei", and you needed to use "qu" before an "e" to make a /k/ sound.

[@MmmGallicus]

And it is Kebec and not Kwebec.

[@Musketeer009]

@@paulohagan3309 No. The 'oi' is the 'wa' sound as in 'moi' (mwa) (me), 'toi' (twa) (you), 'foie' (fwa) (liver) e.t.c.

[@michaelparker8863]

OK, this needs to be workshop but here we go “the other sea creatures were disappointed in the clown fishes abilities because he fancied himself an insect… (pause for laughter)😃

[@carolboteler5381]

I remember hearing the reference from mammary to naming the animal group mammal was for a specific reason. The scientist (whose name I could not remember) wanted to comment or influence his side of the argument of that era whether women should breastfeed or not. He thought referring to us as mammals would remind us what mammary glands were naturally for. I love RobWords.

[@mudshark5393]

In Sweden, the moose is called an älg, which I suspect is a derivative of elk, but if you look at an älg, it is clearly a moose.

[@ShadowDrakken]

Correct! The funny thing is that "elk" actually refers to moose first, and what we call "elk" in the USA aren't actually elk at all, but rather just a type of large deer. And the word "deer" in English also comes from the same root word as "animal" in Nordic languages "djur", "dier", etc

[@greasher926]

@@ShadowDrakkento make things more confusing is that a subspecies of the American elk lives in Siberia and is called Wapiti, which is derived from a Native American name, despite there already being a Mongolian name for the animal, maral. The Russians call the Asian subspecies maral, but call the American one wapiti.

[@Carewolf]

@@ShadowDrakken Well in older Nordic dyr was by hunters referring to deer specifically. It only later became the word for animals, and the prefix Dyre- is still preserved in Danish and some swedish dialects as the meat of deer, in for instance Dyrekølle.

[@TravelsWithBert]

One of my late father's favorite dad jokes was to ask... (needs an English accent) Q. What's the difference between a buffalo and a bison? A. You can't wash your hands in a buffalo. {groan)

[@PhilBagels]

Q. What's the difference between an alligator and a crocodile? A. An alligator will see you later, and a crocodile, after a while.

[@nickmiller76]

Ideally, a Black Country or Birmingham accent.

[@TravelsWithBert]

@@nickmiller76 Indeed. I was born in Walsall.

[@Hydrocorax]

The thing that distinguishes Humans is that we're the only animal that obsesses over what separates them from the other animals.

[@Brunoburningbright]

Because everything says that we ARE animals - but we don't want to be.

[@loisdungey3528]

I generally say in reply that we are not vegetables or minerals so must be animals. Hover, I have heard some people use a 4th description. Human, animal vegetable or mineral!🤔

[@ChristopherDavisDesloge]

The thing that distinguishes humans is their capability of etymology : )

[@ChristopherDavisDesloge]

The thing that distinguishes humans is their capability of etymology : )

[@gordonborsboom7460]

The "pss-pss" sound is recreating the sound of a mouse to "catch" the attention of the cat

[@frankhainke7442]

What birds create is not music, it's signals to other birds. It is more a kind of language. What we humans love in the spring is not the singing of the birds but their message "Creature of the same species, keep away. I grow up my offspring here. So I need this territory."

[@JaniceinOR]

Also their messages "Mate with me! Mate with me! I'm sooooo sexy!"

[@frankhainke7442]

@@JaniceinOR Prior to what I wrote, yeah.

[@rhapsag]

If we imagine another species, more intellectually developed than ourselves, looking upon us as just another animal species, they might perceive our music as merely fulfilling some biological function, much as an ornithologist would regard birdsong. We have no idea of the cognitive or emotional experience of a bird when it sings, but we cannot rule out that it is similar in some way to ours when we make music.

[@frankhainke7442]

@@rhapsag There is ethology.

[@timseguine2]

Related to shark originally meaning villain, German still has the word "Schurke" which is unrelated to fish.

[@KusacUK]

And of course we still have card shark in English, which I guess would be a fossil word.

[@davidioanhedges]

The issue with Fish as a category is that just including all the things that are "obviously proper fish" and excluding things like jellyfish, lobsters and other non-fish seafood - includes very distantly related species, and is a category that includes all of the subspecies of them also includes all land animals ...

[@shishinonaito]

Not sure I understood what you're trying to say... Also, this is not exclusive to English. For example, German for octopus is Tintenfisch (ink fish). Romance languages made an effort and didn't get lazy, so they use fish to refer to fish and fish-shaped animals only (as far as I know). Many fish, though, have unique names that don't include the word fish at all.

[@TesterAnimal1]

Hence the podcast!

[@rhapsag]

Well, if you want to identify as a fish... I think that we (mammals) and other land-dwelling vertebrates (which I assume is what you mean by 'land animals') are far enough down the evolutionary path to be in zoological classes of their own of our own, and not classified as a kind of fish.

[@artgold8593]

Does "moggy" belong with "dog", "hog" and "frog"? This channel is the bee's knees; love it.

[@ftumschk]

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, "moggy" is a rather recent word, first cited in the early 1900s. The OED gives no firm etymology, but suggests it might derive from "Maggie". Apart from being a diminutive of Margaret, a "maggie" was once a Scottish slang term for a young girl, regardless of her name.

[@artgold8593]

@@ftumschk Thank you. I could/should have looked myself, sorry.

[@ftumschk]

@@artgold8593 Thanks for whetting my curiosity!

[@eh1702]

Interesting question. I started looking at wiktionary (OK, I know it’s not the greatest authority) and it connected the word hog to hewing, or cutting chunks. Which is still used in the sense of roughing out stuff, come to think of it. “Hog out the mortices with a drill first, then chisel the sides.” To hog out metalwork means make it all from a blank by cutting, machining, rather than moulds or hammer work.

[@stephensmith1118]

@@ftumschk in Nottinghamshire coal miners where often called Pit Moggies....

[@Pfhorrest]

Regarding the Buffalo Sentence, there's also the monstrous "Jack while John had had had had had had had had had had had the greater effect on the teacher" which does actually make grammatical sense once you add the punctuation! Jack -- while John had had "had" -- had had "had had". "Had had" had had the greater effect on the teacher. So Jack and John both completed some assignment for their teacher, in which John used just the single word "had" in a place where Jack instead used the phrase "had had", and the teacher was more please by Jack's usage than by John's.

[@KAZVorpal]

Pig may actually have come from the word for red clay in England, pygg. The term pygg bank pre-existed the pig-shaped piggy bank, for example, because they were terra cotta made from pygg. It is possible that pigs got their name from often being red, because they were covered with pygg, in their pens. Pigs roll in mud to protect their skin.

[@betsywoolbright8059]

So Pigg, being a surname, may have been related to occupation last name, such as one who works with or sells Pygg?

[@KAZVorpal]

@@betsywoolbright8059 I haven't researched that particular surname's provenance, but it's certainly plausible.

[@aschki]

10:41 when you mentioned that shark has germanic roots that mean something like villain, i right away had to think about the german "Schurke" - which means exactly that

[@AlmightyRawks]

Dutch 'schurk' as well. Now I'm going to imagine a shark every time someone says the word schurk!

[@GunnarMiller]

Some younger Germans have started using the Americal English "hi!" as a greeting. My German father-in-law always complains about ever-increasing "Denglish", and when he'd hear my kids using it, he'd grumpily ask "so where's the shark?" as the German for shark is "Hai".

[@jamosmcginty]

The difference between a buffalo and a bison is that you can't wash your hands in a buffalo.

[@ftumschk]

Well, I suppose you could _try..._

[@philhawley1219]

The difference between a cormorant and a shag is that no-one ever remembers their very first cormorant.

[@dumpster_fiyah]

I feel like there's some basin connection here, but basin and bison don't rhyme in my accent. Are they homophones in some accent?

[@jonrolfson1686]

@@dumpster_fiyah Basin and Bison are thought to rhyme in ‘Strine.

[@canyonblue7735]

What's the difference between a Chickpea and a Lima Bean?... I've never had a Lima bean on my face. :D Anyway, hum us a tune will ya?

[@eoinmacantsaoir811]

We grew up calling dandelions "pissybeds" in Ireland in the 80s

[@RudieVissenberg]

same word in Dutch, "pissebedden"

[@trinefanmel]

Interesting thing though: in the German dialect my dad grew up speaking, dandelions are likewise called "bed-pissers", but in High German, they're called "Lion's tooth"...

[@stephend9968]

@@RudieVissenberg Interestingly, the good Doctor Google translates that word as "woodlice"!

[@connorm3436]

What distinguishes humans from other animals is the amount of information we can pass from one generation to the next. This is largely thanks to the complexity of our spoken and written languages.

[@CrownTown10]

You guys are the MOST fun one can have with words. Props all around! One suggestion? I’d be fascinated by a session with you guys covering concepts like “linguistic drift” and word adoption. Thanks for all the fun!

[@AutoReport1]

You have it backwards, a placenta is first a flat cake, it is secondarily and by comparison, the connection between baby and womb, because after delivery it resembles a placenta in shape. The English alternative is afterbirth.