I just came across a word that I had not heard before, passerine. It means birds with feet adapted to perching.
So---what other out-of-the-ordinary animal words to you know?

leporine - hare-like

Habent Abdenda Omnes Praeter Me ac Simiam Meam

Read all about my travels around the world here.

Sciurine: Politician-like, Oops - that's squirrel-like.

quote:

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Sciurine: Politician-like, Oops - that's squirrel-like.

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I thought politician-like was anguine!

"This could be fun," he croaked, in a ranine (froglike) gargle.

from The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann.

the girl that the protagonist fell in love with in the sanitarium on the magic mountain was from the Russian Steppes. i look like that too, that kind of Polish, Czech, or Russian face.

tapir: a piglike mammal of the genus Tapirus of tropical America and Malaya, with a short flexible snout.

i have a snout. ha!

btw, bellsouth hasn't cut me off yet. ????what gives????ˇ

btw, bellsouth hasn't cut me off yet. ????what gives?
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Because you've got a tapir face, they've threatened to cut you off? Hey, it's BELLsouth, not BELLEsouth!

anthropoglot
An animal, such as a parrot, capable of copying human speech

"That's squirrel-like", says Asa.

I wonder: Do you pronounce squirrel with one syllable, or with two? Is there any systematic Brit-vs-US distinction in this?

quote:

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A squirrel to some is a squirrel,
To others, a squirrel's a squirl.
Since freedom of speech is the birthright of each,
I can only this fable unfurl:
A virile young squirrel named Cyril,
In an argument over a girl,
Was lambasted from here to the Tyrol
By a churl of a squirl named Earl.
-- Ogden Nash

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I pronounce squirrel as one syllable: rat.

Arnie, you crack me up!!!
Don't you think squirrels are a little cuter than rats????

Nope. Squirrels are rats that happen to live in trees. That is the Grey Squirrel, of course. The Red Squirrel, being totally inoffensive, has been almost wiped out by its cousin.

There's asinine, derived from "ass".

Serpentine is another such word that has made it into non-literal speech where it doesn't call the animal to mind.

Now, arnie, what about the black squirrel? I still think the gray ones are cute, however!
I did find that the squirrel, while being able to eat acorns with its paws, does not have opposable thumbs. However, the web asserts that the opossum has "opposable thumbs" on its hind foot where it would be useful only for climbing.
However, if you look at the picture, you will see that while it is called opposable, it does not meet primate definition of being able to touch pad of each of the digits.

However, that is probably much more than anyone ever wanted to know about the opposum!

anguine snakelike

now you're talking to me. possums, squirrels....i'm rubbing my paws together in delight! arnie, i have a cartoon for you that i made up. if i can remember how to do it, i will publish it here. actually, i have a whole series about the lives of our garden variety, pedestrian rats, mice, possums, squirrels and other varmints.

the mayor of rat town stares out his window, observing how the humans graciously feed begging squirrels in the park. he remarks to his assistant that it isn't fair that the humble rat, who is only a bushy tail away from being a squirrel, should go without. "Henderson, by God, i'll see that there's a prosthetic bushy tail available to every rat in our fair city, or my name isn't Mayor Ratt".

you guys? it worked. i took the bait. seriously, does anyone want me to publish the cartoons here? i don't want to showboat.

wfc,

Go ahead, please post it; I, for one, would love to see your cartoon.

Yes, WFC, I too would love to see it. And, for you, the opposable thumbs' site:

anserine - of or resembling a goose; gooselike

A word useful in certain contexts.

quote:

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I pronounce squirrel as one syllable: rat.

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Arnie, I just heard a description of a squirrel that you would love:
"A squirrel is only a rat dressed in a better outfit."

blattoid - Resembling a cockroach

I used gallinaceous in a post earlier today. I found it in The Grandiloquent Dictionary with a definition of resembling or pertaining to domestic fowls. However, I was told by another authority (aahmmm) that it specifically means rooster like. Can someone help me win this battle?

quote:

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Originally posted by Morgan:
...gallinaceous... Can someone help me win this battle?

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My, you really are competitive, aren't you!
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1. Of, belonging to, or characteristic of the order Galliformes, which includes the common domestic fowl as well as the pheasants, turkeys, and grouse.
2. Relating to or resembling the domestic fowl.

[From Latin gallinaceus, of poultry, from gallina, hen, feminine of gallus, cock. See gal- in Indo-European Roots.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary (www.dictionary.com)
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\Gal`li*na"ceous\, a.[L. gallinaceus, fr. gallina hen, fr. gallus cock.] (Zo["o]l.) Resembling the domestic fowls and pheasants; of or pertaining to the Gallinae.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (www.dictionary.com)
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relating to or resembling a fowl
WordNet ® 1.6, © 1997 Princeton University (www.dictionary.com)
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Etymology: Latin gallinaceus of domestic fowl, from gallina hen, from gallus cock
Date: 1783
: of or relating to an order (Galliformes) of heavy-bodied largely terrestrial birds including the pheasants, turkeys, grouse, and the common domestic fowl

Merriam-Webster Dictionary (www.m-w.com)
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1. a. The male of the common domestic fowl, Gallus domesticus, the female being the HEN. (Often called in U.S., as in Kent, rooster.)

OED Online (dictionary.oed.com)
===============================================

Is that enough?

The OED has a second definition, which your friend may be thinking of:

2. humorously. a. Resembling that of a cock; ‘cocky’. b. Consisting of fowls.

There are many, many definitions of cock and words containing cock.

Hugh Rawson devotes four and a half pages to cock in Wicked Words: A Treasury of Curses, Insults, Put-Downs and Other Formerly Unprintable Term From Anglo-Saxon Times to the Present, 1989, a delightful resource. No family should be without one. Let me quote his first paragraph.

"Whether referring to the whole man (a hearty cock, say, or a cocky individual) or to his instrument of procreation, the bird is one of the principal symbols of masculinity, along with BULL. The sexual overtones are so strong, in fact, that the name of the barnyard foul has almost been lost in the United States, with the blander rooster (one who roosts) being the preferred term in polite society for most of the past two hundred years. The reluctance to say cock for fear of what other people will think one is thinking extends to additional words that incorporate the same nasty sound. Thus, no one today has any hesitancy about mentioning apricots, haystacks, and weather vanes, which have replaced words that our nice-nelly ancestors felt nervous about, i.e., apricox, haycocks, and weathercocks. These are typical of the changes that took place in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries as proto-Victorians on both sides of the Atlantic began sanitizing the English language. Not even personal names were exempt. For instance, Amos Bronson Alcott, father to the famous Louisa May, changed the family name from Alcox (itself something of a comedown from the probably original, Allcock). As the magisterial editor of the OED, Sir James Murray, said in 1893 when he came to his entry on cock: 'The current name amoung the people, but, pudoris causa, not permissible in polite society or literature; in scientific language the Latin is used.' And the Latin, of course, is penis, which was incorporated into English in the late seventeenth century, and which originally (to the Romans) meant tail - a slight displacement anatomically, but a large one psychologically."

(I have no idea what pudoris causa means. Can anybody help me?)

Cock, referring to a certain male appendage, is well-known. It wasn't until I went to Missouri (way back in 1963) that I found out that cock could also refer to the female genitalia. (See the connection between cock, penis, and tail? Rawson also has a juicy one-page entry under tail.) Indeed, Rawson defined cock alley (or lane) by quoting Captain Francis Grose (author of A Classical Dictionary of the English Tongue, 1796, edited and annotated by Eric Partridge, Barnes and Noble, 1963): "The private parts of a woman". He says synonyms include cock-ball, cock-inn, cockpit, and cockshire. Grose also defined flat-cock as, "a female". Rawson says, "In the southern part of the United States, where many early English expressions survive, cock is still used informally to refer to female as well as male genitalia."



Other definitions include,

cockalorum - "a small man with a big opinion of himself" (we don't know anybody like that, do we?);

cockquean (sound familiar?) - "a low variant of cotquean, meaning an effiminate man, especially one who does woman's work, or, alternatively, a woman who is coarse, vulgar, or masculine."

Tinman

I must be getting better. I had to edit this only four times!

[This message was edited by tinman on Mon Dec 16th, 2002 at 23:05.]

Tinman, you are absolutely amazing. I just wanted you to know that your research is always appreciated, though often there isn't much more to say! It looks like you won, Morgan! Now, what can I do to beat Morgan's over 100 replies in the wives' thread????
I am looking for pudoris causa, Tinman.