Posts Tagged: animal

  • A duck or canard in a garden with purple background.

    A canard and half selling a duck

    I don’t know if you have heard the word “canard” used recently to refer to a false or fabricated news story or rumour. Perhaps there are too many such stories nowadays to even bother identifying them. The term originates from the French word for “duck” with several rather eccentric explanations to explain how it came […]

  • The most delightful fauxbia. Anatidaephobia originated from the Far Side comic by Gary Larson. He defined it as "the fear that somewhere, somehow, a duck is watching you".

    Anatidaephobia an animal phobia

    The irrational fear of animals (for instance, spiders, insects, mice, cats, or snakes) can be a severe phobia according to psychiatrists. Phobia comes from the Greek word for fear, ‘phóbos’. Scientific research shows the frequency of common animal phobias is 5.5 % for ophidiophobia (fear of snakes) and 3.5 % for arachnophobia (fear of spiders). […]

  • Teal (n.) "small freshwater duck," early 14c., of uncertain origin, probably from an unrecorded Old English word cognate with Middle Dutch teling "teal," Middle Low German "telink", from West Germanic "taili".

    TEAL TEAL TEAL—lining up the political ducks

    Independents win multiple seats in the Australian 2022 election The 2022 Australian election is over probably much to everyone’s relief. The undeniable word of the election though, has to be TEAL (but do you know what it really means?). The self-identified Teal candidates have taken multiple “blue-ribbon” seats off the Liberal Party. The Liberal Party’s […]

  • Coloured engraving of a pangolin from J.G.Woods Illustrated Natural History 1869

    The Pangolin Pandemic

    If there is a morality tale to be found in this coronavirus pandemic it is surely the story of the exploitation of the pangolin. There is strong evidence that the COVID-19 virus may have been transferred to humans from a pangolin in the Wuhan “wet market” in China (although the alternative route may have been […]

  • No one is quite sure how the anaconda got its name. However a suggestion for the origin of the name that I find most enjoyable is that it represents Tamil anaikkonda which means having killed an elephant. Now that makes more sense.

    Did the anaconda kill an elephant?

    The green or common anaconda, Eunectes murinus, inhabits the Amazon and Orinoco basins of South America, the Guyanas (the northeastern countries of South America) and north of Trinidad. It is a member of the boa family and the heaviest snake in the world. The anaconda kills its prey by coiling itself around the victim and […]

  • If you could buy kiwi from the supermarket

    How to roast a kiwi on a barbeque

    Are you having a rugby barbecue this weekend? I suggest you roast a kiwi or two. Here is an easy recipe. Choose young kiwis so that they won’t be tough and too slow to cook. If you are using old kiwis that have been running around too long you might have to beat them a few […]

  • Finches in niches—Hawaiian honeyeaters evolved from a finch like bird that colonised the islands taking advantage of different niches

    Meaning of niche

    Niche (pronounced neesh or nitch) is a word used in ecology and marketing. In its original use it is a noun that describes a shallow recess, especially one in a wall, to display an ornament. It came into English from the French verb nicher to make a nest. In ecology, niche theory describes how an organism or group […]

  • Yelve—Basket and fork to gathering the dung (fuel in the yurts = traditional Mongolian tents). Sükhbaatar Aimag, Mongolia, 1972

    Calling a yelve a dung fork

    Still hunting for words to use to distinguish between a three-tined and a four-tined fork I was rewarded with a consolation prize. I have discovered the word for a dung fork is a yelve (a dung fork is used for clearing dung from stables or from cattle stalls). This word, sadly, has almost completely disappeared […]

  • Horse image coloured etching madrigal

    A little history of horse words

    It started with ekwos Modern horses (Equus ferus caballus) were first domesticated on the northern European steppes 6000 years ago by people we identify as the Proto-Indo-Europeans (PIE). These Proto-Indo-Europeans called their new friend the ekwos. They used it to conquer Europe and Asia and to spread their language firstly across these continents and ultimately […]

  • Aadvark coloured engraving by Tim Entwisle

    How did the aardvark get its name?

    We all know the aardvark because its name sits right at the start of the dictionary. The double letter aa is an almost unique occurrence in English (apart from aardvark’s less well known cousin the aardwolf and the biblical name Aaron) so its presence provides a big clue that aardvark is not a native English word. […]

  • Underdog (WOTW) and top dog sawing a log

    Supporting the underdog explanation

    Love the underdog Australians love the underdog, the person expected to lose a contest, game or struggle. We identify with the dogged determination of the humble triumphing over the over-hyped and spoilt favourite. Both sides of politics claim to be the underdog leading up to an election because they fear that being favourite will lose […]

  • A lark collage

    Larking about larks

    Modern life can be so busy and serious. We work long hours during the week and spend the weekends doing housework or chasing around after children or family. We do need to stop, relax and even do some frivolous things. It might seem like a strange thing to suggest but we should look to the […]