bobcat

From bob (short hair; with reference to its tail) + cat.

compound

In the course of a single month this year, the following news reports emanated from Florida: […]A father from East Orlando punched a bobcat in the face for attacking his daughter’s dog.

2023 March 27, Helen Lewis, “How Did America’s Weirdest, Most Freedom-Obsessed State Fall for an Authoritarian Governor?”, in The Atlantic:

A North American wildcat, Lynx rufus, having tufted ears and a short tail.

чэтыушыумыш

čɛtəwušəwuməš


snowy owl

Bubo scandiacus
Bubo scandiacus#Translingual

A large, white, nomadic Arctic owl (Bubo scandiacus).


barbel

PIE word
 *bʰardʰéh₂
From Middle English barbel, from Old French barbel, from Vulgar Latin *barbellus, from Late Latin barbulus, diminutive of Latin barbus.

The Barble fishes, if one of them chance to be engaged, will set the line against their backes, and with a fin they have, toothed like a sharp saw, presently saw and fret the same asunder.

1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

A freshwater fish of the genus Barbus or other closely related genera.

(biology) Whisker-like sensory organs, located around the mouth of certain fish, including catfish, carp, goatfish, sturgeon, and some types of shark.

barbo

whisker-like sensory organs of certain fish


ruffed grouse

Bonasa umbellus
Bonasa umbellus#Translingual

An American game bird, Bonasa umbellus; the male makes drumming sounds with its wings


fish food

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-fish food.wav

Food for fish that are kept in aquaria; sprinkled on the surface of the water, usually in the form of dry flakes.


scad

Unknown, early 17th century, perhaps related to shad. In sense “large amount”, US 1869, of unknown origin, presumably from large shoals/schools of the fish.

Any of several fish, of the family Carangidae, from the western Atlantic.


brachet

From Middle English brachet, from Old French brachet, a diminutive of Old Occitan brac, from Frankish.

Ryght so as they sat ther came rennyng in a whyte hert in to the halle and a whyte brachet next hym and xxx couple of black rennyng houndes cam after with a greete crye

1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter V, in Le Morte Darthur, book III (in Middle English):

Right so as they sat, there came running a white hart into the hall, and a white brachet next to him, and sixty black hounds came running after with a great cry

And foresters, in green-wood trim, / Lead in the leash the gaze-hounds grim, / Attentive, as the bratchet’s bay / From the dark covert drove the prey, / To slip them as he broke away.

1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “Introduction to Canto Second: To the Rev. John Marriot, M.A.”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: William Miller, and John Murray, →OCLC, page 61:

I followed it as well as I could, I who have so often boasted of my memory now sniffing along for what seemed a league at least like a brachet and ready almost to yelp for joy at the thought of a place I knew, after so much emptiness, silence, and blackness.

1987, Gene Wolfe, chapter VI, in The Urth of the New Sun, 1st US edition, New York: Tor Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 38:

(obsolete) A female hunting hound that hunts by scent; a brach.


colly

en-adj

colly (comparative collier, superlative colliest)

collier (comparative)
colliest (superlative)

From Middle English coly, from Old English *coliġ, from Proto-West Germanic *kolig, equivalent to coal + -y. Doublet of coaly.

four colly birds

1780, unknown author, Twelve Days of Christmas:


sunny side up

(US) Of an egg: fried on one side, served with the unbroken relatively soft yolk on the top.

(of a newborn) Born with one's head facing upward, as opposed to the normal downward-facing birth.


lamentation

en-noun

lamentation (countable and uncountable, plural lamentations)

Recorded since 1375, from Latin lāmentātiō (“wailing, moaning, weeping”), from the deponent verb lāmentor, from lāmentum (“wail; wailing”), itself from a Proto-Indo-European *leh₂- (“to howl”), presumed ultimately imitative. Replaced Old English cwiþan. Lament is a 16th-century back-formation.

der

Bernhard Strigel
descent from the Cross
lamentation of Christ


rice rat

A rat of the species Oryzomys palustris, found in rice fields and grassy marshes of Mexico, Central America and the southern United States.


Labradoodle

Now there are dozens of mixes, most of which are a poodle blend. There is the goldendoodle, labradoodle, maltipoo, schnoodle, shihpoo, and the puggle, a mix of a pug and a beagle.

2007, Earl Mindell, Elizabeth Renaghan, Dr. Earl Mindell’s Nutrition and Health for Dogs, Basic Health Publications, Inc., →ISBN, page 117:

Participating pooches must be between 12-20 weeks old at the time of taping. This year, two labradoodles, a pomsky and a corgi are among members the Central Florida contingent.

2023 January 27, Patrick Connolly, “Meet the Orlando rescue dogs playing in Puppy Bowl XIX”, in Orlando Sentinel:

A dog that is a cross between a Labrador and a poodle.


horse whisperer

en-noun

horse whisperer (plural horse whisperers)

The curious feature of the art was that "horse-whisperers" actually talked to the animal, usually from mouth to ear, in an unintelligible tongue; which, however, the horses appeared to understand.

1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 216:

Nothing irks me more than when people call me a Horse Whisperer. Let me say once and for all – I’m not a Horse Whisperer. There are no special gifts or secret magic powers when it comes to training horses. No-one can teach a horse by ‘whispering’ or looking into his eyes. No-one can apply some ‘secret’ process and have horses instantly understand everything forever more.

2015 July 28, Neil Davies, There’s no such thing as a ‘horse whisperer’:

A person who purportedly has a magical ability that enables them to speak to horses or to have control over horses through whispering.


cat state

(physics) A superposition of the most extreme states possible in a system, analogous with Schrödinger's cat, which is in a superposition of "dead" and "alive".


tom-tit

From the common given name Tom and tit, as in titmouse.

(ornithology) Petroica macrocephala, the miromiro or New Zealand tit, a bird of the Petroicidae (Australasian robin) family.


cetaceous

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-cetaceous.wav

Relating to whales or more generally to any marine mammal of the infraorder Cetacea.


broiler

→ Finnish: broileri

→ Italian: broiler

→ Latgalian: broilers

→ Spanish: broiler

→ Swedish: broiler

From broil + -er (agent noun suffix) or, for the chickens, + -er (patient suffix).

(cooking, Canada, US) A device used to broil food; part of an oven or a small stove; known as a grill in British English.


yarrow

yarrow (usually uncountable, plural yarrows)

Friedrich Kluge
John Francis Davis
Nicoline van der Sijs

From Middle English ȝarowe, yarowe, yarwe, from Old English ġearwe, from Proto-West Germanic *garwā (“yarrow, yarrow-like herbs”), perhaps derived from *garu (“prepared, ready (of food)”), as the plant was used medicinally for digestion.
Cognate with Dutch gerw (“yarrow”) and German (Schaf-)garbe.

inh

The Yarrow, where-with-all he stops the wound-made gore:

1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, song 13 p. 218:

“Oh, yarrow! This is it,” she said, extracting a single long stemmed ferny grass with clusters of small white flowers from the bouquet in her hand.

1979, Victor Kaplan, The Woman who Gathered Yarrow; The Box; Miss Vesey's Other Leg, →ISBN, page 11:

Achillea millefolium
Achillea millefolium#Translingual

Common yarrow, Achillea millefolium, the type species of the genus.


daman

From Arabic دَمَان (damān) (إسرائيل (Isrā'īl)), literally "lamb (of Israel)."


hammy

en-adj

hammy (comparative hammier, superlative hammiest)

hammier (comparative)
hammiest (superlative)

McDonald & Dodds is back, with episode one so deliberately hammy and meta that, technically, it should have been a complete horlicks. In one scene, when they were all hanging on to the balloon ropes, Mr Bean-like, to stop Jason Watkins flying away, it sort of was.

2021 March 1, Carol Midgley, “McDonald & Dodds review – cheerful escapism and filth-free distraction”, in The Times:

Amateurish; characterized by overacting.


hammy

He put his palms flat on the ground, then grabbed the back of his knees, stretching his hammies for the millionth time that morning.

1999, Melissa Lucashenko, Hard Yards, University of Queensland Press, page 129:

“A move like this would have been inpossible for me before yoga,” he said. “Flexibilty-wise, I was struggling. My hammies were tight, my groin was tight. My hips have really benefited.”

2003, John Capouya, Real Men Do Yoga: 21 Star Athletes Reveal Their Secrets for Strength, Flexibility and Peak Performance, page 150:

I've noticed that although cycling keeps me reasonably "cardio fit", I am losing general flexibility, e.g. when touching my toes. This is despite me stretching my quads, calves, and hammies during and after my training rides.

2003 June 10, Andrew Swan, “Good complementary exercise to cycling?”, in aus.bicycle (Usenet):

2004, J. L. Roberts, Braggin' Rights: Fantasy Football Rewind 2004 (2003 Season Recap), AuthorHouse USA, page 83,
A slow start and hammy injury were major contributors.

(US, Australia, New Zealand, chiefly sports, slang) The hamstring.

A: I′m only just getting fully fit now after that hammy [hamstring tear].

2000, Mark B. Andersen, Doing Sport Psychology, page 96:

Why he went back on after 3/4 time is beyond me. If he was trying to prove a point he has all season to do that not do your hammy in the first game.

2009 March 26, Phil, “So Cousins does a hammy”, in aus.sport.aussie-rules (Usenet):

(US, Australia, New Zealand, chiefly sports, slang) A hamstring injury.


aasvogel

/ˈɑːsˌfəʊ.ɡəl/

Borrowed from Afrikaans aasvogel (“vulture”) (obsolete form of aasvoël), from Dutch aasvogel, from aas (“carrion”) + vogel (“bird”).

As the charge exploded I saw the aasvogel give a kind of backward twist.


codling

From Middle English codling, codeling, equivalent to cod + -ling.

A hake (cod-related food fish), notably from the genus Urophycis.


Australopithecus

en-noun

Australopithecus (plural Australopitheci or Australopithecuses)

Australopitheci (plural)
Australopithecuses (plural)

In its turn the institute received from the British Museum of Natural History plaster casts of the skulls of Australopithecuses, a species of higher ape which lived over a million years ago.

1959, P[avel] Kann, translated by Robert Daglish, “Strelka of Vasilyevsky Island”, in Leningrad: A Short Guide, Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, page 86:

In his final period, Teilhard felt he saw all his own Weltanschauung confirmed by Dr. Broom’s work with the fossils of Australopitheci in South Africa; […]

1960 autumn, Herbert Musurillo, “[Book Reviews: Philosophy] The Phenomenon of Man. By Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. […]”, in Thought: Fordham University Quarterly; A Review of Culture and Idea, volume XXXV, number 138, New York, N.Y.: Fordham University Press, →ISSN, page 450:

1. Australopithecus africanus. (a) Taungs: It was found in 1924 in a cave at Taungs in Bechuanaland, South Africa. It is the oldest of all Australopitheci, about 600,000 years old.

1963, Stephen Fuchs, “The Human Race in Its Development from the Earliest Times”, in The Origin of Man and His Culture, New York, N.Y.: Asia Publishing House, page 25:

On the other, in the fossil-bearing pockets exposed in the Transvaal, in the region of Johannesburg (Taungs, Sterkfontein) by quarries opened in the limestone (exactly as at Choukoutien), a whole series of skulls and jaws, and some limb bones have, since 1925, gradually been disclosing the extremely curious group of Australopitheci.

1965, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, translated by J[ohn] M[ichael] Cohen, “The Question of Fossil Man”, in The Appearance of Man, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Row, →LCCN, pages 108–109:

In the middle of the nineteenth century there were very few paleontological data shedding light on the origin of man. During the past century many major discoveries were made in that area, among which the discovery of remains of Australopithecuses in South and East Africa was particularly important, as was the discovery of remains of Pithecanthropes and of closely related creatures (Homo erectus) in Java, China, and Africa.

1980, M[ikhail] I[vanovich] Budyko, anonymous translator, “The Origin of Man”, in Global Ecology, Moscow: Progress Publishers, section VIII (The Ecological Mechanism of the Evolution of Man), page 224:

The Australopitheci, who lived between the years - 6 million and - 1 million, perhaps mingled with the first representatives of the human race, the Homo habilis… their presence is certified in Africa as early as the year - 2.4 million, but could date back to the year - 3 million.

1995, Claudine Roland, translated by Ann MacDonald-Plénacoste, “Tools and Men”, in Prehistory (In Focus), Vic-en-Bigorre: MSM, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 9:

This stone, which was discovered, several kilometres from any possible geological source, in a cave occupied by Australopitheci in South Africa, must have been found and transported about three million years ago on account of its redness, its accidental likeness to a face and, above all, because of its ‘gaze’.

2002, Dario Gamboni, translated by Mark Treharne, “From the origins to the classical age”, in Potential Images: Ambiguity and Indeterminacy in Modern Art, London: Reaktion Books, →ISBN, pages 22–23:

In this sphere too, Homo habilis was the first species of Homo to exhibit the brain capacity crucial to sustain language: 700 ccs against the 450 ccs of the Australopitheci who preceded him, and significantly greater development in the parietal and frontal areas, which are respectively responsible for the control over language and over the hands.

2010, Bruno G. Bara, translated by John Douthwaite, “The Evolution of Communicative Competence”, in Cognitive Pragmatics: The Mental Processes of Communication, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, →ISBN, page 215:

It’s Wizard McDowl, chaos magic terrifies him. He watched his parents turn into Australopithecuses during the war. He’s never got over it.

2012, Stephen B. Pearl, “Officialdom”, in Worlds Apart, Toronto, Ont.: Dark Dragon Publishing, published 2013 July 30, →ISBN, page 25:


snowy egret

Egretta thula
Egretta thula#Translingual

A small heron, Egretta thula, having white plumage.


spotty

From Middle English spotty, equivalent to spot + -y.

I went fishing today and all I caught were spotties.

A common New Zealand fish, Notolabrus celidotus


popinjay

/ˈpɑpənˌd͡ʒeɪ/

From Middle English popinjay, popyngeay, popingay, popejay, from Anglo-Norman papegai, papejoie et al., (northern) Old French papejai (“parrot”), probably from Old Occitan papagay (compare Occitan papagai, Catalan papagai), ultimately from Arabic بَبْغَاء (babḡāʔ, “parrot”), of imitative origin.

(now archaic outside heraldry) A parrot.

(archery) A target to shoot at, typically stuffed with feathers or plumage.

Picus viridis
Picus viridis#Translingual

(UK) The green woodpecker, Picus viridis.


cercopithecine

Any member of the taxonomic subfamily Cercopithecinae: various Old World baboons, monkeys and macaques.


leatherback

Dermochelys coriacea
Dermochelys coriacea#Translingual

A large sea turtle, Dermochelys coriacea, with a leathery back.


pilot fish

pilot fish (plural pilot fish or pilot fishes)

pilot fish (plural)
pilot fishes (plural)

So called from its having been supposed to guide sharks to their prey.

A marine fish, Naucrates ductor, that often follows large vessels and sharks.


Pomeranian

Among their dialects the Rhine Franconian and Moselle-Franconian varieties prevailed, but other dialects were present as well, such as Upper German Swabian, Low German Westphalian, Pomeranian, and the Mennonite varieties, and even Volga German.

P. Rosenberg, Dialect convergence in the German language islands (Sprachinseln), in: 2005, Peter Auer, Frans Hinskens, Paul Kerswill (eds.), Dialect Change: Convergence and Divergence in European Languages, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge University Press, p. 221ff., here p. 228

… the language of everyday use is characterized by a wide panorama of local dialectal variation, ranging from Low German dialects in the north (e.g. Low Saxon, Westphalian, Pomeranian), through Central German dialects (e.g. Hessian, Thuringian, Silesian) to the High German dialects of the south (e.g. Bavarian, High Alemannic, Alsatian and Franconian) …

2011, George L. Campbell, Gareth King, The Routledge Concise Compendium of the World's Languages, 2nd ed. (1st ed. 1995), p. 238, inside the section German

A second important isogloss that separates Pomeranian from the other Low German variants, … These strong morphemes are absent in the North Sea Germanic area, as well as in Pomeranian.

2019, Gertjan Postma, A Contrastive Grammar of Brazilian Pomeranian (Linguistik Aktuell / Linguistics Today 248), p. 6


coral snake

Any of various venomous snakes of six genera in family Elapidae, many displaying distinctive color bands.

Over 65 recognized species of New World coral snakes in three genera (Leptomicrurus, Micruroides, Micrurus), native to tropical South America and Southern USA, having bright bands of red, yellow and black.

About 16 species of Old World coral snakes in three genera (Calliophis, Hemibungarus, Sinomicrurus), some banded.


smooth snake

A nonvenomous snake, Coronella austriaca, native to Eurasia.


garter snake

Any of various species of nonvenomous snakes of the genus Thamnophis, native to America, with longitudinal stripes.


monitor lizard

From the obsolete taxa Monitor and Lacerta monitor now displaced by Varanus within the single-species family Varanidae. The word Monitor is a calque of German Warner, which is a loanword from Arabic وَرَن (waran). The conflation of the two words was encouraged by the lizards' habit of standing on their hind legs and appearing to monitor their surroundings.

Any of various large carnivorous lizards of the family Varanidae, all of whose extant species are of genus Varanus, native to Africa, Asia and Australia.


slowworm

From Middle English sloworm (possibly influenced by slow), from Old English slāwyrm (“slow-worm, blindworm”), from *slā (related to Norwegian slo (“slow-worm”), Swedish slå (“slow-worm”)) + wyrm (“worm, snake”). Compare Swedish ormslå.

inh

Well, sir, it may be we shall have some better orations of it anon: well, Ile watch you as narrowly as ever you were watcht, and Ile play with you as the nightingale with the slowworme;[…]

c. 1588, Robert Greene, “Scene Eleventh. Frier Bacons cell.”, in The Honorable Historie of Frier Bacon and Frier Bongay:

Anguis fragilis
Anguis fragilis#Translingual

A small Old World lizard, Anguis fragilis, often mistaken for a snake, having no legs and small eyes.


goanna

A respelling in Australia of guana, from iguana. Rhyming slang sense rhyming on colloquial pronunciation 'pianner'.

Four goannas ran up the tree, and the animals of the bush had preyed so very lavishly on the remains of mortality that the thorax and other parts of the neck, together with various portions of flesh from the body, were missing.

1832, Coroner's Inquest, November 15, The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, p. 3

Hello! There's a goanna; that's a good sized one; but nothing to the one that I tumbled over when I was coming from the Big River.

1849, The Ring, April 21, Bell's Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer, p. 2

I'll think of how the kids come alive walking around sandplains / reading tracks, looking for goannas, digging up witchetty grubs / collecting berries, branches of bush medicines.

2022, Meg Mooney, Northern Territory Literary Awards, page 33:

Any of various monitor lizards native to Australia.


trappings

Ornamental coverings or harnesses for a horse; caparisons.

koristeloimi

ornamental coverings or harnesses for a horse


tuatara

/tuːəˈtɑːɹə/

Sphenodon punctatus
Sphenodon punctatus#Translingual

A reptile, Sphenodon punctatus, native to New Zealand, that resembles lizards and is the only surviving rhynchocephalian.


zibeline

en-noun

zibeline (countable and uncountable, plural zibelines)

A thick, soft woolen fabric with a long nap.


trapping

An instance of ensnaring something or someone.


peeper

An animal, such as some frogs, having a shrill, high-pitched call.


sniggle

en-verb

sniggle (third-person singular simple present sniggles, present participle sniggling, simple past and past participle sniggled)

sniggles (present singular third-person)
sniggling (participle present)
sniggled (participle past)
sniggled (past)

See snig (“a kind of eel”) + -le (frequentative verbal suffix).

suffix

But rampant poaching (the correct term for catching a grown-up eel with bait is to “sniggle”, though elvers are caught with something more like a giant sieve) is now prompting authorities to crack down well in advance of next year’s season.

[2012 December 1, “Transparent gold”, in The Economist, →ISSN:

(intransitive) To fish for eels by thrusting a baited needle or hook into their dens.


grass snake

A snake of either of the two species of the nonvenomous green snake, Opheodrys, of North America:

A smooth green snake (Opheodrys vernalis)


halter

From Middle English halter, helter, helfter, from Old English hælfter, hælftre (“halter”), from Proto-West Germanic *halftrijā (“harness”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to cut”), equivalent to half- + -ter. Cognate with Scots helter (“halter”), Dutch halfter, halster (“halter”), Low German halfter, helchter, halter (“halter”), German Halfter (“halter, holster”).


potbellied pig

A small Vietnamese domesticated pig, sometimes kept as a pet.


bush pig

The commonest game animals are vervet and colobus monkey, baboon, common duiker, bush-pig and grysbok.

1969, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology, volume 63, page 19:

There are two types of bohonda net hunts. One type is directed by a nkangohonda (bush pig charmer), a sorcerer-hunter who handles bush pigs as easily as if they were dogs, gathering herds of them about him and even holding them by their necks.

2006, Armin Prinz, editor, Hunting Food and Drinking Wine: Proceedings of the conference in Poysdorf, 2003, page 208:

The bush pig (Potamochoerus porcus) is an African member of the pig family, Suidae, resembling a boar but with long body hair and tassels of hair on its ears.

2011, Britannica Educational Publishing, Grazers, page 175:

An African pig of the genus Potamochoerus; Potamochoerus porcus or Potamochoerus larvatus.


pigskin

Compound of pig + skin.
The American football is a direct descendant of the ball used in the game of rugby. The rugby ball originally was made of a pig’s bladder with a leather cover; the earliest versions of the leather exterior sometimes were made of pigskin.

Those killed fighting his troops would be buried in pigskins.

2016, Robert Maddock, The 1,300 Years’ War: Volume One:


cat flap

Then, one Saturday when Martin was working but Yvonne wasn't, she brought a saw and other tools with which she constructed a hinged "cat flap" in a rear down-stairs door. It meant that the cats were free to come and go at any time, the effect being healthier for the pets and for the household.

1984, Arthur Hailey, Strong Medicine, Doubleday, →ISBN, page 340:

Jane had sealed up the cat flap, closed the ever-open window of the laundry, but there the cat somehow managed to be, staring up with a look of dependence.

1988, Fay Weldon, The Heart of the Country, Viking, →ISBN, page 142:

I let the cats out because they couldn't be arsed going through the cat flap. They were just sitting in front of the cat flap and yowling.

2006, Louise Rennison, Startled by His Furry Shorts, HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 104:

A small, hinged panel, usually cut into a door, with an opening just large enough for a cat to enter.

gatonera

small hinged panel cut into a door where a cat can come in


pecker

From Middle English pekker, equivalent to peck (“to pick at something in the manner of a bird”) + -er (“forming agent nouns”).

af

Rice mills, called pecker, cog, and water mills... The first... so called, from the pestle's striking... in the manner of a wood pecker.

1802, J. Drayton, A view of South Carolina, as respects her natural and civil concerns, page 121:

After being thrashed by flail or whipped off, the rice was milled and dressed wholly by hand or by a crude machine called a ‘pecker’.

1949, S. C. Murray, This Our Land: the Story of the Agricultural Society of South Carolina, page 41:

Someone who or something that pecks, striking or piercing in the manner of a bird's beak or bill, particularly:

(uncommon) Any machine or machine part moving in a pecking fashion, particularly:

(US regional, historical) Clipping of pecker mill, a rice mill.


fisher cat

From French fiche or fichet (“polecat pelt”), from Middle Dutch visse (“nasty”) (contemporary Dutch: vies (“nasty, dirty”)), influenced by fisher.

Pekania pennanti
Pekania pennanti#Translingual

Martes pennanti
Martes pennanti#Translingual

A North American carnivorous mammal (Pekania pennanti, syn. Martes pennanti) of the weasel family.


cane toad

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-cane toad.wav

(Australia, slang, derogatory, humorous, especially used in rugby league) A person from Queensland; a Queenslander.


water rat

From water + rat. Compare Saterland Frisian Woaterrotte, West Frisian wetterrôt, Dutch waterrat, German Low German Waterrötte, Waterrött, German Wasserratte, Danish vandrotte, Swedish vattenråtta, Icelandic vatnsrotta.


Tasmanian tiger

en-noun

Tasmanian tiger (plural Tasmanian tigers)

Tiger refers to the stripes on the animal's back; the thylacine is not a member of the cat family.

Thylacinus cynocephalus
Thylacinus cynocephalus#Translingual

An extinct carnivorous marsupial (†Thylacinus cynocephalus), once native to Tasmania.


thylacine

From translingual Thylacinus; from Ancient Greek θύλακος (thúlakos, “pouch, sack”) + Latin -inus (-ine).

uder

[…]high up on an overhanging rock, perhaps twenty feet above the ground, a ghostly white thylacine was clearly visible. Thylacines, or Tasmanian tigers, have been extinct on the mainland of Australia for at least two thousand years.

2020, David Farrier, “The Moment Under the Moment”, in Footprints, 4th Estate, →ISBN:

A carnivorous marsupial (†Thylacinus cynocephalus) which was native to Tasmania, now extinct.


grey ghost

* (parking inspector): Reputedly a reference to the grey uniforms once worn, the term remaining even though the uniforms have changed.

1998 July 18, Sydney Morning Herald, Grey ghosts turn a blind eye.
The council's chairman, Mr Harold Scruby, is demanding an inquiry into the grey ghost "culture" after a survey raised concerns about the threat to pedestrians of vehicles which stop illegally on crossings and no-standing or no-stopping zones.

(Australia, Melbourne, Sydney) A parking inspector, a person issuing tickets fining vehicles parked illegally or for too long.

(Australia) The bonefish species (Albula argentea, syn. Albula neoguinaica).


pinto

en-adj

pinto (comparative more pinto, superlative most pinto)

more pinto (comparative)
most pinto (superlative)

Borrowed from Spanish pinto (“painted, mottled”).

bor+

While Profane, dreamy, went on to tell of his nights with the Alligator Patrol, and how he’d hunted one pinto beast through Fairing’s Parish; cornered and killed it in a chamber lit by some frightening radiance.


porcelain

en-noun

porcelain (countable and uncountable, plural porcelains)

From Middle French porcelaine (“cowrie, wampum; china, chinaware”), from Old Italian porcellana (“cowrie; china, chinaware”), from porcella (“mussel or cockle shell used to hold pigments while painting”) from porco (“pig”) with -ella (suffix forming diminutives).

der

The museum has an extensive collection of rare Chinese porcelains.

(countable, now usually in the plural) An object made of porcelain, (particularly) art objects or items of tableware.

porselein

items (esp. dishware or objets d'art) made of porcelain


topknot

A small European flounder (Phrynorhombus regius, syn. Rhombus punctatus).


nonpareil

en-noun

nonpareil (countable and uncountable, plural nonpareils)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-nonpareil.wav

/ˌnɑnpəˈɹɛl/

From Late Middle English non-parail (“unparalleled, nonpareil”) [and other forms], from Middle French nonpareille, nonpareil (“unparalleled”) (obsolete), from non- (prefix meaning ‘not’) + pareil (“alike, like, same”). Pareil is derived from Old French pareil, from Late Latin pāriculus (“equal; like; of a number: even”), from Latin pār (“equal; like; of a number: even; suitable”) + -culus (a variant of -ulus (suffix forming diminutives)). Doublet of umpire.
Noun sense 4 (size of type standardized at 6-point) is usually taken to derive from the attractive type cut by the brothers Giovanni and Gregorio De Gregori (fl. 1482–1503 and 1496–1527 respectively) for their 1498 edition of the divine offices in Venice; it was for a long time the smallest-sized type in use.

nb...

nonparaille, nonpareyl, nounparalle, nowimparaile

nonpareillo

quasi-Italian, obsolete, chiefly 17th–18th c.

I believe that letters which are less than a millimetre and a half (1/17 inch) high, will finally prove injurious to the eye. How little attention has hitherto been paid to this important subject is exemplified in the fact that even oculistic journals and books frequently contain nonpareil, or letters only a millimetre (1/25 inch) high.

1881 May 19, Hermann Cohn, “Eyes and School-Books”, in Popular Science Monthly:

A Handbook of Astronomy (cover, brown leather, detached, 5 plates, antique letterpress long primer, author’s footnotes nonpareil, marginal clues brevier, captions small pica).

1922 February, James Joyce, “[17]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

(uncountable, typography, chiefly historical) A size of type between ruby and emerald (or, in the United States, between agate and minion), standardized as 6-point; (countable) a slug of this size.

nonparej

size of type standardized at 6-point; slug of this size


callop

an Australian freshwater fish, Macquaria ambigua; the golden perch or yellowbelly


polliwog

From earlier polwigge, from Middle English polwygle, equal to poll (“head”) + wiggle.

So Tommy sang the following verse: “The cold got worse, The frog got hoarse, Till croaking he scared a polliwog!”

1897, L. Frank Baum, “The Story of Tommy Tucker”, in Mother Goose in Prose:


mora

From Latin mora (“duration of time, delay”).

Instead of syllables, Japanese is supported by mora. (Tokyo is To-o-kyo-o, a four-mora word.) The word Nihongo consists of four morae, ni-ho-n-go, pronounced with four rhythmical units of sound.

2011, Senko K. Maynard, Learning Japanese for Real, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, →ISBN, page 32:

(phonology) A unit of syllable weight used in phonology, by which stress, foot structure, or timing of utterance is determined in some languages (e.g. Japanese).


mora

From New Latin from a botanical name, perhaps from Tupi.

At length, somewhere about the centre of the wood, she led me to an immense mora tree, growing almost isolated, covering with its shade a large space of ground entirely free from undergrowth.

1904, W.H. Hudson, Green Mansions, A Romance of the Tropical Forest:

(botany) Any tree of the genus Mora of large South American trees.


mustang

Mustang (horse)
Mustang (military officer)

From Mexican Spanish mestengo, from Old Spanish mesteño (“feral animal”) or mestengo (“feral animal”).

He is a product of the merchant marine and is one of the officers called "Mustangs" who entered the navy during the Civil War.

1903, James Hoyt (editor), Seen & Heard by Megargee, L.N. Megargee, page 1754

He was the son of a famous artist, and was what we termed a "mustang" officer, who had come into the navy from the merchant service during the Civil War.

1939, Fred J. Buenzle, Bluejacket, W. W. Norton & Company, page 179:

(US, military slang) A merchant marine who joined the U.S. Navy as a commissioned officer during the American Civil War.


pickled egg

Jars of pickled eggs are seen in British pubs, where they are served as bar snacks.

(British) An egg, usually from a hen, that has been pickled in vinegar, giving the outside a brown colour.


taiko

The taiko, a gadfly petrel from the Chatham Islands near to New Zealand, was well known to islanders during the nineteenth century, being used by them as a food resource.

2000, Errol Fuller, Extinct Birds, Oxford, page 61:

Chatham Island taiko
Chatham Island taiko

Pterodroma magentae
Pterodroma magentae#Translingual

The Chatham Island taiko (Pterodroma magentae).


sylph

First attested in 1657. From New Latin sylphes, coined by Paracelsus in the 16th century. The coinage may derive from Latin sylvestris (“of the woods”) and nympha (“nymph”). Ultimately from the root silva (“woods, forest”). Related to sylvan.
More at Wikipedia.

(ornithology) Any of the mainly dark green and blue hummingbirds (genus Aglaiocercus), the male of which has a long forked tail.


Major Mitchell's cockatoo

en-noun

Major Mitchell's cockatoo (plural Major Mitchell's cockatoos)

Named after the Australian explorer Major Thomas Mitchell.

Lophochroa leadbeateri
Lophochroa leadbeateri#Translingual

A cockatoo of species Cacatua leadbeateri (syn. Lophochroa leadbeateri), having distinctive salmon pink plumage and a bright red and yellow crest, principally of arid Australia.


longhorn

A breed of beef cattle, having long horns, bred in Texas and other parts of southwest United States.


jacamar

Any of various insectivorous tropical birds, of the family Galbulidae, having iridescent plumage and a long, sharp bill.

jakamari

any of various insectivorous tropical birds of the family Galbulidae


shark bait

The meeting formed a committee to investigate and make recommendations to 'counteract the shark menace'. […] [T]he committee […] suggested that 'drastic penalties could be inflicted on surfers who bathed at dangerous hours or swam out far enough to earn the title of "shark bait"'.

2014, Caroline [M.] Ford, Sydney Beaches: A History, Coogee, N.S.W.: NewSouth Publishing, →ISBN, page 150:

(Australia, colloquial) A lone swimmer or surfer far from shore, a shark baiter.


fisher

From Middle English fischer, fischare, from Old English fisċere (“fisher”), from Proto-Germanic *fiskārijaz (“fisher”), equivalent to fish + -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Fisker (“fisher”), West Frisian fisker (“fisher”), Dutch visser (“fisher”), German Low German Fisker, Fisser (“fisher”), German Fischer (“fisher”), Danish fisker (“fisher”), Swedish fiskare (“fisher”).

The fishers who live here left for the mainland only days ago as an unseasonable October storm ravaged the islands.

2021 December 20, The Road Ahead, Brisbane, page 43, column 1:

A person who catches fish, especially for a living or for sport; a person engaging in the pastime of fishing.

صَيَّاد m which refers alike to a hunter

poetically عَرَكِيّ m which is singulative of عَرَك and عُرُوك


isinglass

isinglass (usually uncountable, plural isinglasses)

/ˈaɪzɪŋɡlɑːs/

/ˈaɪzɪŋɡlæs/

Apparently from obsolete Dutch huisenblas, from German Hausenblase, from Hausen (“sturgeon of the Huso genus”) + Blase (“bladder”).

Isinglass flummery.—Put six ounces of isinglass into a quart of new milk, sweeten it, set it over the fire, and keep it stirring one way all the time, till it is jellied; pour it into basins, and when cold turn it out; you may put in orange flower water if you like.

1830, Richard Dolby, The Cook's Dictionary, and House-keeper's Directory: A New Family Manual of Cookery and Confectionery, on a Plan of Ready Reference Never Hitherto Attempted, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, →OCLC, page 292, column 1:

Isinglass is a substance well known in commerce, from its employment both in the arts and in domestic economy. It is the purest known form of animal jelly, and is obtained from the swimming bladder of a few kinds of fish, chiefly of the genus Sturgeon, the Acipenser of zoologists. This is indicated by some of its continental names, of which the English is no doubt a corruption;—thus, in German, Isinglass is called Hausenblase, from hausen the great sturgeon, and blase a bladder.

1842, J[ohn] F[orbes] Royle, On the Production of Isinglass along the Coasts of India, with a Notice of its Fisheries (Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature; no. 32618), London: Wm. H. Allen and Co., Booksellers to the Honourable East-India Company, Leadenhall Street, →OCLC, page 1:

Isinglass is brought to market in different forms, sometimes in that of simple plates, at other times rolled up in different shapes, or cut into fine thread. When of good quality isinglass is of a whitish colour, thin, and semi-transparent, but tough and flexible, destitute of taste as well as of smell. The inferior kinds are thicker, yellowish-coloured, opaque, and sometimes have a fishy smell and taste. In boiling water isinglass is entirely dissolved, with the exception of a very minute portion of impurities.

1858, Catalogue of the Collection of Animal Products Belonging to Her Majesty's Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851, Exhibited in the South Kensington Museum, London: Printed for Her Majesty's Commissioners by W. Clowes and Sons, Stamford Street and Charing Cross, →OCLC, page 68, column 1:

Isinglass.—This is procured from the air-bag or swimming-bladder, sometimes termed the sound, of various fishes. […] Sometimes the bag is dried unopened, as in the case of the purse, pipe, and lump isinglasses of the shops. At other times it is laid open, and submitted to some preparation; being either dried unfolded, as in the leaf and honeycomb isinglasses; or folded, as in the staple (long and short) and book isinglasses; or rolled out, as in the ribbon isinglass.

1868, Jonathan Pereira, “The Gelatinous Alimentary Principle”, in Charles A. Lee, editor, A Treatise on Food and Diet: With Observations on the Dietetical Regimen Suited for Disordered States of the Digestive Organs; and an Account of the Dietaries of Some of the Principal Metropolitan and Other Establishments for Paupers, Lunatics, Criminals, Children, the Sick, &c, New York, N.Y.: Samuel R. Wells, Publisher, 389 Broadway, →OCLC, page 103:

The sturgeon yielded a non-food product that was important for domestic and commercial use. This was isinglass, a gelatinous substance that was derived from the inner membrane of the air bladder (also called the swimbladder, or sound). Isinglass had a variety of uses. The Ojibway valued it as an effective binding agent in the manufacture of paint. Isinglass was also a product much in demand in Europe during the fur trade period. It was noted as producing a high quality glue and as a fining agent for beers and wines.

1991, Tim E. Holzkamm, Victor P. Lytwyn, Leo G. Waisberg, “Rainy River Sturgeon: An Ojibway Resource in the Fur Trade Economy”, in Kerry [Margaret] Abel, Jean Friesen, editors, Aboriginal Resource Use in Canada: Historical and Legal Aspects (Manitoba Studies in Native History; 6), Winnipeg, Manitoba: University of Manitoba Press, →ISBN, page 128:

Not all fish have swim bladders, and those from certain tropical or semitropical areas (roughly 20° N and 15° S) provide the best quality isinglass for fining purposes. Of these fish, the threadfin family (Polynemoidia) provide excellent quality. In order to gain a desirable fining quality for a particular beer type, two or more kinds of isinglass may be blended. To illustrate this more precisely, Polynemus isinglass provides a fining that settles densely, whereas Silurus isinglass, from the great catfish family (Siluridae) in South America, gives a more flocculant fining but which settles less densely and consequently is more easily disturbed.

1994, William A. Hardwick, editor, Handbook of Brewing (Food Science and Technology; 64), New York, N.Y.: Marcel Dekker, Inc., →ISBN, page 222:

A form of gelatine obtained from the air bladder of the sturgeon and certain other fish, used as an adhesive and as a clarifying agent for wine and beer.


woodchuck

Borrowed from Cree ocêk, otchek (“fisher”), borrowed from Ojibwe ojiig (“fisher, marten”), or a similar term in a related Algonquian language, subsequently reapplied to the groundhog.
An earlier form of this word, woodshock, still sometimes designates the marten. Also a doublet of wejack.

(Northern US) A rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots, Marmota monax.


macrodactyl

(obsolete) One of a former group of wading birds (Macrodactyli) having very long toes.


macropod

From macro- + -pod, after Latin Macropodidae. Compare micropod.

A marsupial of the family Macropodidae, which includes the kangaroos, wallabies, tree kangaroos and pademelons.


farrow

From Middle English *farow, *fargh (found only in the plural faren), from Old English fearh (“piglet”), from Proto-West Germanic *farh, from Proto-Germanic *farhaz, from Proto-Indo-European *pórḱos, from *perḱ- (“to dig”).
See also Old High German farah, Middle Irish orc (“piglet”), Latin porcus, Proto-Slavic *porsę (“pig, piglet”), Lithuanian par̃šas, Kurdish purs. Doublet of pork.

Aha! I know you, gammer! Hamlet, revenge! The old sow that eats her farrow!

1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 15]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

She is the womb and the tomb: the sow that eats her farrow.

1949, Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces:


Minorca

From Late Latin Minorca, Minorica, from Latin Balearis Minor. Compare Majorca.

”Yet another breed which has fallen from grace, more through unwise breeding than any fault of its own is the Minorca. See ref. p.43.


lancetfish

lancetfish (plural lancetfish or lancetfishes)

lancetfish (plural)
lancetfishes (plural)

A voracious deep-sea fish in the genus Alepisaurus, having long, lancet-like teeth.


owling

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-owling.wav


cyclostome

From translingual Cyclostomata, confer French cyclostome.

Except the cyclostomes, as the lampreys and sphagobranchiæ, which are not real fishes, as I shall show elsewhere.

1811, André Marie Constant Duméril, “On the Sense of Smell in Fishes”, in Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, and the Arts, volume 29, page 344:

The Cyclostomes, or suckers, with regard to their skeletons, are the most imperfect of all the Vertebrates,

1835, William Kirby, On the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God, volume 2, William Pickering, page 390:

Any of various primitive jawless fish of the class Cyclostomata, such as the lamprey or hagfish.

rondbuŝulo

any of various primitive jawless fish of the class Cyclostomata


peekapoo

Blend of Pekingese + poodle; formed as a pun on peekaboo.

A crossbreed dog resulting from the breeding of a Pekingese and a poodle.


dorgi

This wasn't the first time that one of the Queen's pets had been a victim; in 1989 her dorgi Chipper was killed by the Queen Mother's Corgi Ranger.

2007, Karen Bush, Everything Dogs Expect You to Know, page 69:

Back when the dorgi had been a small puppy he had ignored the more serious lessons and only seemed to be interested in the darker animal myths and legends.

2014, Aby King, Lupo and the Secret of Windsor Castle, Book 1:

A crossbreed dog resulting from the breeding of a dachshund and a corgi.


indigo bunting

A blue bunting of North America (Passerina cyanea).


yaffle

I remember the cry of the wood-peckers, or yaffils, as we call them in that country, going to roost in a pale autumnal evening […].

1792, Charlotte Smith, Desmond, Broadview, published 2001, page 114:

“‘Punched that rotton strap,’ he goes on saying, ‘like a gret ol' yaffle punchin' a 'ollow log!’”

1924, Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not… (Parade's End), Penguin, published 2012, page 119:

(UK, dialectal) The European green woodpecker, Picus viridis.


cookiecutter shark

cookiecutter shark (plural cookiecutter sharks)

The polka dots are scars left by the cookiecutter shark, a thalassophobia-inducing creature with jaws designed to remove round plugs of flesh.

2021 March 30, J. B. MacKinnon, “An Entire Group of Whales Has Somehow Escaped Human Attention”, in The Atlantic:

Isistius brasiliensis
Isistius brasiliensis#Translingual

A small shark, Isistius brasiliensis, that tears circular chunks of flesh from its prey.


coy dog

A cross between a coyote and a wild or domestic dog.


charger

/ˈt͡ʃɑɹd͡ʒɚ/

-ɑː(ɹ)dʒə(ɹ)

From Middle English chargere, equivalent to charge + -er.

dækketallerken

a large platter under the dinner plate in a formal dinner setting

Miller had a new executive officer, a real charger, as they're known in the trade, who was looking into all aspects of the operation up there.

1980, Bill Gulley, Mary Ellen Reese, Breaking Cover, page 161:

Synonym of hard charger (“person with a good work ethic”)


carabao

/kæɹəˈbeɪəʊ/

Borrowed from Spanish carabao, from Waray-Waray karabaw, from Malay kerbau, from Proto-Malayic *kAr(ə)baw, ultimately from Proto-Mon-Khmer *krpiʔ ~ *krpiiw ~ *krpuʔ ~ *(kr)puh (“buffalo”). Compare Khmer ក្របី (krɑɑbəy), Halang kơpùa, Indonesian kerbau, Javanese ꦏꦼꦧꦺꦴ (kebo), Thai กระบือ (grà-bʉʉ).

der

The weaker carabaos are slaughtered for meat, the stronger ones put to work on Golgotha, and the drivers are assimilated into the workforce.

Filipinos tell several stories about the carabao. The Tagalog, who live mainly on Luzon, tell the following story about how the carabao, one of the largest animals in the country, is tricked by one of the smallest animals, a hummingbird.

2001, Greg Nickles, Philippines: The Culture, page 30:

The Malay people who arrived in the Philippines between 1500 B.C. and 500 B.C. introduced the carabao as a work animal. Today the carabao, also known as the water buffalo, is a very important animal in the Philippines. Carabaos are popular farm animals.

2005, Cindy Fazzi, How to Draw the Philippines's Sights and Symbols, page 24:

A domesticated subspecies of water buffalo, Bubalus bubalis carabanesis.


batrachian

en-adj

batrachian (comparative more batrachian, superlative most batrachian)

more batrachian (comparative)
most batrachian (superlative)

From New Latin Batrachia, former name of the zoological order Anura, from Ancient Greek βατράχεια (batrákheia), neuter plural of adjective from βάτραχος (bátrakhos, “frog”).

Anon the minnow-bucket will emit '"batrachian"' sobs.

1905, Eugene Field, Songs And Other Verses:

At this Lena smiled again with that mirthless batrachian grin.

1939, Henry Miller, Tropic of Capricorn, Grove Press, published 1962, page 31:

His batrachian lips pursed into a smile, and he dug again into the honey.

2000 The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets, "The Innsmouth Look"
I dig her batrachian lips / Her bulbous eyes and scaly hips

Pertaining to or resembling a frog or toad.


catamount

Clipping of catamountain (“leopard, panther; ocelot; man living in the mountains”), from Late Middle English catamountain, from Middle English cat of the mountain (“leopard, panther”).

inh

Uncle Charley's voice was very soft and there was a weary note in it. "Great snarlin' catamounts, but I'm tired."

1920, Peter B[ernhard] Kyne, chapter VIII, in The Understanding Heart, Toronto, Ont.: The Copp Clark Co., →OCLC, pages 144–145:

Puma concolor
Puma concolor#Translingual

(US) A wild animal of the family Felidae, especially the cougar, mountain lion or puma (Puma concolor).


Fido

From Spanish or Italian fido from Latin fīdus (“faithful”). Popularly claimed to be directly from Latin fīdō (“I trust, rely on”) instead of the Romance intermediary, but this might be folk etymology. The stereotypical dog's name is evidently very old; a newspaper from 1760 cites, "[a] small white Greyhound with a Collar, answers to the Name of Fido."

This may provide a simple explanation for the seemingly universal desire of all dogs to drink from the toilet. Since toilet water has likely been refreshed more recently than the water in Fido's bowl, it tastes better.

2019, Marc Bekoff, Jessica Pierce, Unleashing Your Dog:


spaniel

→ Dutch: spaniël

From Middle English spaynol, from Old French espaigneul (modern French épagneul), from Old Occitan espaignol, from Vulgar Latin *Hispāniolus (“Spanish”), from Hispānia (“Spain”).

Any of various small to medium-sized breeds of gun dog having a broad muzzle, long, wavy fur and long ears that hang at the side of the head, bred for flushing and retrieving game.

Pro[theus].[…]Yet (Spaniel-like) the more ſhe ſpurnes my loue, / The more it growes, and fawneth on her ſtill;

c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 33, column 1:


spaniel

en-verb

spaniel (third-person singular simple present spaniels, present participle spanielling or spanieling, simple past and past participle spanielled or spanieled)

spaniels (present singular third-person)
spanielling (participle present)
spanieling (participle present)
spanielled (participle past)
spanielled (past)
spanieled (participle past)
spanieled (past)

Antony: Do we shake hands.—All come to this!—The hearts / That spaniel'd me at heels, to whom I gave / Their wishes, do discandy, melt their sweets

c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

J. Sedgewick (1840) Timon, but not of Athens, page 200: “Always spanielling at the heels of power, the mitred Dignitaries displayed, from first to last, the most rancorous hostility against her.”

David S. Bell (2000) Presidential Power in Fifth Republic France, →ISBN, page 30: “Hence Duverger's famous question about de Gaulle's first spanielling Prime Minister makes political ('M. Debré, existe-t-il?'), but not constitutional sense.”

The genre which differed from the world in order to advocate a better one - or the genre which spanielled at heel the sensationalist virtual reality world we will now arguably inhabit till the planet dies - had become by 2000, in triumpth or defeat or both, an institution for the telling of story.

Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn (2003) The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, page 65

To follow loyally or obsequiously, like a spaniel.


sand cat

Felis margarita
Felis margarita#Translingual

A small wild cat, Felis margarita, distributed over African and Asian deserts.


off like a bride's nightie

en-adj

off like a bride's nightie (not comparable)

A reference to the supposed eagerness of just-married couples to have sexual intercourse on the night of their wedding. Australian from 1960.

(Australia, slang, simile) Making a rapid departure; away.

(Australia, horse racing) Moving quickly and resolutely.

Making a rapid departure; away.
Moving quickly and resolutely.


margay

→ Korean: 마게이 (magei)

→ Japanese: マーゲイ (māgei)

From Old Tupi marakaîá via Spanish margay, Portuguese maracajá.

In Costa Rica margays were once widely distributed in dense forest from the coastal lowlands to about 3,000 meters elevation in the interior mountains.

2002, Mel Sunquist, Fiona Sunquist, Wild Cats of the World, University of Chicago Press, page 137:

Margays are small and slim spotted cats (60cm/40cm/3.5kg) with long bushy tails and long legs with large feet.
Typically found in mature forest, margays are nocturnal and arboreal, hunting mostly in trees (they can rotate their hind legs and descend a tree head first).

2008, Kirk Smock, Guyana, Bradt Travel Guides, page 32:

The margay has broad feet, flexible ankles, and a long tail, all adaptations for arboreality (Nowell and Jackson 1996). In captivity, the margay is well known for its climbing and jumping acrobatics.

2010, David Whyte Macdonald, Andrew J. Loveridge, Kristin Nowell, “Chapter 1: Dramatis personae: an introduction to the wild felids”, in David Whyte Macdonald, Andrew J. Loveridge, editors, The Biology and Conservation of Wild Felids, Oxford University Press, page 38:

Leopardus wiedii
Leopardus wiedii#Translingual

Leopardus wiedii, a spotted cat native to Central and South America.


crupper

From Middle English croper, crouper, from Anglo-Norman cruper, cropere, from Old French cropiere, crupiere, from the same Germanic root as croup. Doublet of croupiere.

Our knight did bear no less a pack / Of his own buttocks on his back: / Which now had almost got the upper- / Hand of his head, for want of crupper.

1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:

he eſpied a mule's crupper, which hung to the ceiling of the room; this he took down, and tendering it to Don Quixote, went on, ſaying...

1784, Alonzo Fernandez de Avellaneda, translated by William Augustus Yardley, A continuation of the history and adventures of the renowned Don Quixote de la Mancha: The Novelist's Magazine, volume 16, page 112:

Captain went out in the cab all the morning. Harry came in after school to feed me and give me water. In the afternoon I was put into the cab. Jerry took as much pains to see if the collar and bridle fitted comfortably, as if he had been John Manly over again. When the crupper was let out a hole or two, it all fitted well. There was no bearing rein—no curb—nothing but a plain ring snaffle. What a blessing that was!

[1877], Anna Sewell, “A London Cab Horse”, in Black Beauty: […], London: Jarrold and Sons, […], →OCLC, part III, page 158:

I sought among the mules one with a mild expression of generosity and gentleness in its eyes, and found it in a white mule with a crupper adorned with arabesques.

1882, Edmondo de Amicis, Morocco: Its People & Places, tr. C. Rollin-Tilton

A strap, looped under a horse's tail, used to stop a saddle from slipping.


manul

Borrowed from Russian ману́л (manúl), from Mongolian мануул (manuul)/ᠮᠠᠨᠤᠤᠯ (manuul).

A small wild cat of Central Asia, Felis manul, syn, Otocolobus manul.

Chʼah diʼilii bikéyahdę́ę́ʼ mósí ałchinígíí


doucet

French, diminutive of doux (“sweet”). Doublet of dulcet and dolcetto.

(obsolete except in dialects) A sweetened dish.


dalgite

(Western Australia) A rabbit-eared bandicoot; a bilby.


jaguarundi

Borrowed from Portuguese jaguarundi, from Old Tupi yawaundí.

Felis yagouaroundi
Felis yagouaroundi#Translingual

A medium-sized Central and South American wild cat, Puma yagouaroundi, Herpailurus yagouaroundi or Felis yagouaroundi.


oribi

(South Africa) Ourebia ourebi, a species of antelope.


doxy

I know one patient who couldn't take the tabs but could tolerate liquid doxy.

1996 May 7, Phyllis Mervine, “Re: Tetracycline”, in sci.med.diseases.lyme (Usenet):

(informal, pharmacology) Clipping of doxycycline.


hackamore

Perhaps from Spanish jáquima (“halter”).

Before they could agree or disagree he’d hauled the horse around by the hackamore and was pounding off up the track.

1992, Cormac McCarthy, All The Pretty Horses:


serval

From French serval, from Portuguese (lobo) cerval (“Iberian lynx”), from Latin lupus cervārius (literally “stag wolf”), i.e. "wolf that hunts stags", from cervus (“deer, stag”).

der

Leptailurus serval
Leptailurus serval#Translingual

A medium-sized African wild cat, Leptailurus serval, formerly Felis serval.


meagre

1986, A. Wysokiński, The Living Marine Resources of the Southeast Atlantic, FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 178, page 48,
Among more valuable species some of them are worth mentioning, especially littoral forms as: meagres and other croakers (Sciaenidae), grunters (Pomadasyidae), threadfins (Polynemidae), groupers (Serranidae), snappers (Lutjanidae) […] .

It is striking that these represent meagres (Argyrosomus regius), a species never mentioned in classical texts.

2008, Arturo Morales-Muñes, Eufrasia Roselló-Izquierdo, “11: Twenty Thousand Years of Fishing in the Strait”, in Torben C. Rick, Jon M. Erlandson, editors, Human Impacts on Ancient Marine Ecosystems: A Global Perspective, page 261:

Meagres (Argyrosomus regius, 230 cm, 103 kg) have been raised mainly in Spain, France and Italy.

2011, John S. Lucas, Paul C. Southgate, Aquaculture: Farming Aquatic Animals and Plants, unnumbered page:

Argyrosomus regius, an edible fish of the family Sciaenidae.


gralloch

en-verb

gralloch (third-person singular simple present grallochs, present participle gralloching, simple past and past participle gralloched)

grallochs (present singular third-person)
gralloching (participle present)
gralloched (participle past)
gralloched (past)

From Scottish Gaelic grealach (“entrails”), from Proto-Celtic *gre-lach, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰer- (“bowels”).

On our mattress in the secret nights, the girls whispered to me how he’d been watching her in a revival of Emma Bovary in an art-house in Berkeley and Tristessa’s eyes, eyes of a stag about to be gralloched, had fixed directly upon his and held them.

1977, Angela Carter, The Passion of New Eve:

Then the beasts were prised apart at the breast,
 and they went to work on the gralloching again,
 riving open the front as far as the hind-fork,
 fetching out the offal, then with further purpose
filleting the ribs in the recognised fashion.

2012, Simon Armitage, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, page 64:


swimmer

From Middle English swimmere, equivalent to swim + -er. The dumplings are so called because they are often served in stew.


hirundine

/hɪˈɹʌndʌɪn/

I have not met with these hirundine star-titles except in these two instances, and I think them both incorrect.

1899, R.H. Allen, Star Names and their Meaning, page 44:

Of or relating to a swallow (the bird); of or relating to the family Hirundinidae.


grig

Troilus and Cressida
William Shakespeare

The word is often used in the phrase "merry as a grig". The word is of uncertain origin, though various theories have been suggested, such as a corruption of "merry as a cricket" or "merry as a Greek", as in William Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida: "Then she's a merry Greek indeed." Johnson suggested that the word originally meant "anything below the natural size" (compare Swedish krik and Scots crick).

The black rooks will fly away, my son, and you'll come back as brown as a berry, and as merry as a grig.

1926, Hope Mirrlees, chapter 5, in Lud-in-the-Mist:

[W]e assembled at one o'clock, at two sat down to dinner, consisting of capital stewed grigs, a dish Mrs Burt was famous for dressing, a large joint of roast or boiled meat, with proper vegetables and a good-sized pudding or pie […] .

1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 41

Specifically, the broad-nosed eel. See glut.


grig

The further method of tillage pursued, was to make fallows; and if the season permitted, so that the ground could be cleared and burnt off, to destroy the grig or heath, […]

1791, Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, Transactions of the Society of Arts, volume 9, page 80:


hamadryad

en-noun

hamadryad (plural hamadryads or hamadryades)

hamadryads (plural)
hamadryades (plural)

From Latin Hamadryas, from Ancient Greek Ἁμαδρυάς (Hamadruás), from ἅμα (háma, “together”) + δρῦς (drûs, “tree”).

af

The hamadryades have gone, like the golden fancies of which they were engendered—morning dreams of a young world scarce awake, but full of freshness and beauty. Yet often will the thought, or rather the fancy, come across me, that this wailing but most musical noise—heard in the dim evening, when every tree has a separate sound like a separate instrument, and every leaf a differing tone like the differing notes—is the piteous lament of some nymph pent within the gray and mossy trunk whence she may never more emerge in visible loveliness.

1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVIII, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 301:

The various supports, rafters, braces and plates are of pandanus logs of a rich oily brown, and make one think of a sylvan cathedral where hamadryads might very well dance, where Syrinx might be chased by Pan, Daphne by Apollo, and various other heathen rites take place in the dark hours before the dawn.

1929, Robert Dean Frisbee, The Book of Puka-Puka, Eland, published 2019, page 106:

(Greek mythology) A wood-nymph who was physically a part of her tree; she would die if her tree were felled.

Papio hamadryas
Papio hamadryas#Translingual

A baboon of species Papio hamadryas, venerated by the ancient Egyptians.

Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genera Hamadryas and Tellervo.


glair

en-noun

glair (countable and uncountable, plural glairs)

From Middle English glaire, from Old French glaire, from Vulgar Latin *clāria, a substantive use of Latin clārus (“clear”).

If you beat an egg white until a froth forms on the surface, the clear liquid below the froth is glair.

2021, Hana Videen, The Wordhord, Profile Books, published 2022, page 65:

Egg white, especially as used in various industrial preparations.


malkin

From Malde, an early form of Maude or Matilda + -kin (diminutive ending). Compare grimalkin.

Ȝe ne haue na more meryte · in masse ne in houres / Þan Malkyn of hire maydenhode · þat no man desireth.
You gain no more merit from mass or your prayers / Than Malkin from her maidenhood, which no man desires.

c. 1385, William Langland, Piers Plowman (Bodleian MS Laud Misc. 581), I

We did but keep you surety for our son, / If this be he, — or a draggled mawkin, thou, / That tends her bristled grunters in the sludge[.]

1849, Tennyson, Poems, volume 2, page 224:

(now archaic, regional) A (stereotypical name for a) lower-class or uncultured woman; a kitchenmaid; a slattern.

Now she was strong enough to walk and watch them circling in the sky or to sit in the arbour at the end of the long lawn and, with the sunlight smouldering in her dark-red hair and lying wanly over the area of her face and neck, watch the multiform and snow-white convolutions of her malkins.

1946, Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, →OCLC:

There was milk punch and spiced whisky, a smell of goose and maukin roasting on the spit.

1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 158:


gowk

From Middle English goke, gowke, from Old Norse gaukr (“cuckoo”), from Proto-Germanic *gaukaz (“cuckoo”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰegʰuǵʰ- (“cuckoo”).


gowk

Origin uncertain. Likely from Middle English coke, colk (“the core or heart of an apple or onion, pith”), from Old English *colc (“the gullet, esophagus; pit of the stomach; trench, pit, gully”), from Proto-West Germanic *kolk, from Proto-Germanic *kulkaz, *kulukaz (“gullet”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷel- (“to devour, swallow, gulp; throat, gullet”). Possibly a doublet of coke.


limmer

Uncertain; perhaps from limb, or French limier; see leamer.

Thieves, limmers, and broken men of the Highlands.

1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC:

(nautical) A manrope at the side of a ladder.


limmer

en-adj

limmer (comparative more limmer, superlative most limmer)

more limmer (comparative)
most limmer (superlative)

Then the limmer Scottes ared me, burnt my guddes, and made deadlie feede on me and my barnes.

The roote is long and very limmer, spreading his bráches both large and long under the earth and doth oftentimes let, hinder, & staye both the plough and Dren in toyling the ground, for they be so tough and limmer, that the share & colter of the plough cannot easily divide and cut them asunder.

1578, Rembert Dodoens, A Nievve Herball, Or Historie of Plantes, page 669:

Auld plenishen out by was strew'd, Guid L--d but it was limmer; Some creepy stools, an' shelfs weel scower'd Tae hide the worm pict tim'er Tae sell that day.

1844, Robert Huddleston, A Collection of Poems and Songs, on rural subjects, page 81:

If you ride with the hell-spawned reivers and live as a limmer thief then you must expect to be singed by hell's fire.

2002, Linda Lea Castle, Embrace the Sun: The Vaudrys, page 13:

Limber; flexible (either physically or morally).


Thoroughbred

He wanted to be at the white-hot center of equine sport, to become a jockey, to be able to feel the thrust and power of a Thoroughbred in its ultimate competition: racing flat out, surging to the head of the herd.

2007, Gene McCormick, The Blue Collar Thoroughbred: An Inside Account of the Real World of Racing, McFarland, →ISBN, page 103:

A horse of a breed derived from crosses between Arabian stallions and English mares, bred for racing, with its breeding history recorded in an official stud book.


bonobo

/bəˈnəʊ̯ˌbəʊ̯/

/bəˈnoʊ̯ˌboʊ̯/

From Bolobo, a village on the Congo River where Europeans first made contact with the species. Bolobo is possibly imitative of the bubbling of the rapids at that section of the Congo.

A great ape, Pan paniscus, from Africa south of the Congo river.


grizzly bear

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-grizzly bear.wav

The Quantum Grizzly Bear pisses me off.

2024 May 16, very tall bart, [YTP] State of the Union, spoken by Jordan Peterson (Jordan Peterson):

Ursus arctos horribilis
Ursus arctos horribilis#Translingual

A large North American subspecies, Ursus arctos horribilis, of the brown bear.


red wolf

From red + wolf from being a grey wolf relative with a reddish coat.

Canis rufus, a medium-sized canine native to the southeastern United States.


thoroughbred

Alternative letter-case form of Thoroughbred (“horse bred for racing”)

That athlete is a real thoroughbred.

A person of uncommon strength or endurance (like that of a thoroughbred horse).


tinkling

Greater Antillean Grackle
Greater Antillean Grackle

(Jamaica) The Greater Antillean Grackle, Quiscalus niger.


creamy

creamy (comparative creamier, superlative creamiest)

creamier (comparative)
creamiest (superlative)

a creamy lotion

Of any liquid, having the thick texture of cream.

cremós

of any liquid, having the texture of cream


ringtail

A small carnivorous mammal, Bassariscus astutus, somewhat like a raccoon, native to the southwestern United States and Mexico.

A ring-tailed animal, notably:
A capuchin monkey (Cebus spp.)

A ring-tailed animal, notably:
A ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta)

A ringtail possum (family Pseudocheiridae)


coatimundi

From Portuguese coatimundi, from Nheengatu kuatimu'ne, from Old Tupi kua'ti (see coati) + mu'ne (“trick, snare”).

A ring-tailed coati (Nasua nasua), a South American carnivore.


bronco

Borrowed from Spanish bronco (“rough”), 19th c. which in Mexican usage also describes a horse that has not been broken and is still wild.

Swollen with greatness, slightly afraid lest the noble blood of Nottingham change its mind and leave him at any street corner, Babbitt paraded with Sir Gerald Doak to the movie palace and in silent bliss sat beside him, trying not to be too enthusiastic, lest the knight despise his adoration of six-shooters and broncos.

A horse of western North America that is wild or not fully broken.


Brahman

Borrowed from Sanskrit ब्रह्मन् (bráhman).

The coins of this dynasty are all marked with the figures of the Brahman Bull and a horseman; and it is remarkable that this very Hindú device was retained by the Mohammedan sovereigns who reigned over the same countries.

1846 June 20, “Asiatic Society.—June 6.—The Earl of Aukland in the chair.”, in The Athenæum, number 973, page 632:

A breed of beef cattle from India with a hump on the shoulder.


Brahman

(Hinduism) The unchanging, infinite, immanent, and transcendent reality which is the Divine Ground of all matter, energy, time, space, being, and everything beyond in this Universe. The nature of Brahman is described as transpersonal, personal and impersonal by different philosophical schools.


tortoiseshell cat

en-noun

tortoiseshell cat (plural tortoiseshell cats)

a domestic cat whose fur has black, brown and yellow markings


eutherian

From Eutheria, from Ancient Greek εὖ (eû, “good, true”) + θηρίον (thēríon, “beast”).

Belonging or pertaining to the group Eutheria, comprising the mammals more closely related to animals like humans and rodents than to marsupials.


domestic cat

Felis silvestris catus
Felis silvestris catus#Translingual

(zoology) A domesticated cat, of the species Felis catus or Felis silvestris catus, especially one kept as a pet or for vermin control.


tortoiseshell

tortoiseshell (usually uncountable, plural tortoiseshells)

/ˈtɔː(ɹ)təˌʃɛl/

/ˈtɔː(ɹ)təsˌʃɛl/

želvovina

covering of carapace of hawksbill turtle


coati

From Spanish coatí, from Portuguese quati, coati, from Old Tupi kua'ti, from cua (“belt”) + tim (“nose”).

Prospectors and cowpunchers who see the animals most often, sometimes call them Mexican monkeys. Others believe the coati to be a peculiar kind of arboreal anteater. More generally in this region, coatis are called “chulo bears” or simply “chulos,” and will be so referred to hereafter.

1974, Bil Gilbert, “Chulo”, in Backpacker, page 89:

The coatis are four small, carnivorous mammals related to the raccoon, red panda and ringtail, or cacomistle. They range in size from 15 inches (38 cm) in the mountain coati, Nasuella olivacca, to 16-26 inches (41-67 cm) long in the three species Nasua nasua, N. nelsoni and N. narica.

2002, Maurice Burton, Robert Burton, Coati: International Wildlife Encyclopedia: Chickaree - crabs, page 478:

Above: Maya effigy vessel depicting a red coati or opposum with some anthropomorphic traits.

2004, Hope B. Werness, The Continuum Encyclopedia of Animal Symbolism in Art, page 88:

Any of several omnivorous mammals, of the genus Nasua or Nasuella, in order Carnivora, that live in the range from southern United States to northern Argentina.

ìì

any of several animals of the genus Nasua


jockey

The word is by origin a diminutive of jock, the Northern English or Scots colloquial equivalent of the first name John, which is also used generically for "boy" or "fellow" (compare Jack, Dick), at least since 1529. A familiar instance of the use of the word as a name is in "Jockey of Norfolk" in Shakespeare's Richard III. v. 3, 304. Equivalent to jock + -ey.
In the 16th and 17th centuries the word was applied to horse-dealers, postilions, itinerant minstrels and vagabonds, and thus frequently bore the meaning of a cunning trickster, a "sharp", whence the verb to jockey, "to outwit" or "to do" a person out of something. The current meaning of a person who rides a horse in races was first seen in 1670.

And the crime for which Nuncomar was about to die was regarded by them in much the same light in which the selling of an unsound horse, for a sound price, is regarded by a Yorkshire jockey.

1841, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Warren Hastings:

(dated) A dealer in horses; a horse trader.


equestrienne

Were she but the daring equestrienne jumping through the flaming hoops, little it would matter to her if her gauzy skirts did catch.

1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 185:


Nguni

From Zulu noun stem as in umNguni (“member of Nguni people”), isiNguni (“Nguni language group”).

The group of Southern African peoples comprising the Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi, Mpondo and Ndebele nations.


brock

From Middle English brok, from Old English broc (“badger”), related to Danish brok (“badger”); both probably originally from a Celtic source akin to Irish broc, Welsh broch, Cornish brogh and thus ultimately from Proto-Celtic *brokkos.

Or with pretence of chasing thence the brock,
Send in a cur to worry the whole flock.

1756 [1704], Ben Jonson, “The Tale of a Tub”, in Peter Whalley, editor, The Works of Ben Jonson, page 108:


Brahma

Borrowed from Sanskrit ब्रह्मा (brahmā).


panther

From Middle English panter, panther, pantere, from Old French pantere, from Latin panthēra, from Ancient Greek πάνθηρ (pánthēr, “panther”).

der

A cougar; especially the Florida panther.


grassy

Grass carp wise the best bit of advice I can give anyone is to ‘make them fight’ in the water. […] These days when a grassy comes to the net if it hasn’t done much I prod it with the net rather than netting them. This usually spooks them into battle.

2014, Shaun Harrison, “Comment section of ‘Handling cold water carp’”, in AnglingLines.com, archived from the original on 2015-03-19:

It had to be the grassy I was here to find.

2018, Drew Ross, “Grass Carp: Chasing the Eat”, in FlyLords.com, archived from the original on 2020-10-24:

2022, MidwestCarpFisherman, “Glorious 28 pound grassy! New grass carp PR by 10 pounds. Saltillo, Mississippi.”, in Reddit.com, archived from the original on 2022-03-21

(recreational fishing) Alternative form of grassie (“grass carp; white amur”).


swanherd

A person who tends or herds swans; a keeper of swans.

Schwanenwärter

person who tends, herds, takes care of swans


Aberdeen Angus

en-noun

Aberdeen Angus (plural Aberdeen Anguses)

/ˌæb.ɚˈdin ˈæŋ.ɡəs/

From Aberdeen and Angus, the counties in Scotland where the breed originated.

The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles

Oxford University Press
w:Oxford University Press

One of a breed of black hornless beef cattle originating in Scotland.


discus

1656. From Latin discus, from Ancient Greek δίσκος (dískos, “disk, quoit, platter”). Doublet of dais, desk, disc, dish, disk, and diskos.

doublet

The main body of the Amazon River is too fast, too deep, and too silt laden for discus.

2008, Carol Roberts, “History of Discus”, in North American Discus Association, archived from the original on 2008-12-08:

(plural: discus) A discus fish (genus Symphysodon)


poll parrot

It was on the tip of her tongue to call her a poll parrot (Mrs. Kingdom had said nothing but 'dear me' repeatedly and freezingly). She was a free-spoken woman as a rule, and it was terrible to have to sit still and waste all the good things she could have said to her […]

1902, Country Life, volume 11, page 636:

(archaic, slang) A talkative, gossiping woman.


horseman

From Middle English horsman, equivalent to horse + man.

(archaic) Any fish of the genus Equetus.


hippodrome

/ˈhɪpəˌdɹəʊm/

Borrowed from French hippodrome, from Latin hippodromos, from Ancient Greek ἱππόδρομος (hippódromos), from ἵππος (híppos, “horse”) + δρόμος (drómos, “course”). By surface analysis, hippo- + -drome.


Saint Bernard

The dogs were originally bred for rescue at the Great St Bernard Pass on the Italian-Swiss border, and Little St Bernard Pass in the Italian-French border, located close to one another.

One of a breed of large dog, famous for rescuing people on mountains.


sapsucker

/ˈsæpˌsʌkəɹ/

A woodpecker of the eastern United States (of the genus Sphyrapicus) that feeds mainly on the sap of trees


Tonkinese

The language of Tonkin; northern Vietnamese.


flicker

en-verb

flicker (third-person singular simple present flickers, present participle flickering, simple past and past participle flickered)

flickers (present singular third-person)
flickering (participle present)
flickered (participle past)
flickered (past)

From Middle English flikeren (“to flutter”), from Old English flicerian, flicorian (“to flutter”), from Proto-West Germanic *flikurōn.
Akin to Saterland Frisian flikkerje (“to flicker”),
West Frisian flikkerje (“to flicker”), Dutch flikkeren (“to flicker, flutter”), German Low German flickern (“to light up, flash, flicker”). Compare Old English flacor (“flickering, fluttering”), German flackern (“to flicker, flutter”), Old English flēogan (“to fly”).

cog

The shadows flicker to and fro.

1832 December (indicated as 1833), Alfred Tennyson, “The Death of the Old Year”, in Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:

Long after his cigar burnt bitter, he sat with eyes fixed on the blaze. When the flames at last began to flicker and subside, his lids fluttered, then drooped; but he had lost all reckoning of time when he opened them again to find Miss Erroll in furs and ball-gown kneeling on the hearth and heaping kindling on the coals, […]

1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter III, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

(intransitive) To burn or shine unsteadily, or with a wavering light.

A strong desire to smash up everything in the room kept flickering in his head.

There I lay on one side with a thin and rotten plank between the dead man and me, dazed with the blow to my head, and breathing hard; while the glow of torches as they came down the passage reddened and flickered on the roof above.

[1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC:

The ruddy brick floor smiled up at the smoky ceiling; the oaken settles, shiny with long wear, exchanged cheerful glances with each other; plates on the dresser grinned at pots on the shelf, and the merry firelight flickered and played over everything without distinction.

1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC:

I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker, / And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, / And in short, I was afraid.

1915 June, T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, in Prufrock and Other Observations, London: The Egoist […], published 1917, →OCLC, page 13:

1967, Barry Mason (writer), Tom Jones (performer), Delilah
I saw the light on the night that I passed by her window / I saw the flickering shadow of love on her blind

In a city where media companies and hospitals have armed guards, this accessibility is unusual. Inside, drivers sit and chat in between shifts, the overhead fan whirring and causing the dim electric light to flicker over their faces.

2017 April 6, Samira Shackle, “On the frontline with Karachi’s ambulance drivers”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC:

(intransitive) To keep going on and off; to appear and disappear for short moments; to flutter.


flicker

1808, American English, probably echoic of the bird's call, or from the white spotted plumage which appears to flicker.

onomatopoeic

echoic

(US) Any of certain small woodpeckers, especially of the genus Colaptes.


carter

From Middle English carter, cartere, cartare, equivalent to cart + -er. Merged with Middle English careter, caretier (“coachman, charioteer”, a surname), from Anglo-Norman careter (compare French charretier).


lucy

That a lucy or luce is the mature pike, every piscatorial schoolboy knows.

1895, The Gentleman's Magazine, January to June issue, pg. 38:

(archaic) The northern pike (a kind of fish).


gaskin

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-gaskin.wav

That if one [lace] break, the other will hold; or, if both break, your gaskins fall.

c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]:


peckerwood

Inversion of woodpecker. Application to white people is due to the perception that the woodpecker is a symbol of whites, whereas the crow or blackbird is a symbol of blacks.

On the morning of the next, one of Mr. White's daughters came into the house to inform me that there was a "peckerwood" in a tree in the yard. I immediately took my gun and went out to investigate thinking that perhaps it was a Pileolated Woodpecker, a bird I wanted to obtain.

1900 January 15, T. P. Drowne, “A Trip to Fauquier Co., Virginia; With Notes on the Specimens Obtained.”, in Walter F. Webb, editor, The Museum: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Research in Natural Science, volume 6, number 3, Albion, page 38:

When I was a boy, I rooted over an old dead sourwood to get some peckerwood eggs.

1953, Jesse Stuart, The Good Spirit of Laurel Ridge, New York: McGraw-Hill, →LCCN, →OL:

There was nothing but a peckerwood on an oak tree.

1992, Robert Morgan, The Mountains Won't Remember Us: And Other Stories, New York: Scribner, published 2000, →ISBN, →OL, page 40:

(Southern US, Appalachia, slang) A woodpecker.


marmoset

Borrowed from Middle French marmouset (“gargoyle; small child”), probably from marmouser (“to mumble”), of imitative origin.

bor+

A small monkey, now specifically a Central and South American monkey of the genera Callithrix, Mico, Cebuella, or Callibella, with claws instead of nails, and a rather primitive layout.


macaque

Unadapted borrowing from French macaque, from Portuguese macaco, of uncertain origin (see macaco for more). Doublet of macaco.

They are able to recall past images and apply them to current problem solving. In other words, macaques employ memory in order to survive.

2019, Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Jonathan Cape, page 43:

Any of a group of Old World monkeys of the subfamily Cercopithecinae, especially genus Macaca.


tamarin

→ Japanese: タマリン

Borrowed from Spanish tamarín (“tamarin”), from tupi-guarani tamari.

One of a family of squirrel-sized South American monkeys.


Clydesdale

Antigonish County
Antigonish County#English

A community of Antigonish County, Nova Scotia, Canada.


tyrant flycatcher

en-noun

tyrant flycatcher (plural tyrant flycatchers)

The English name corresponds to translingual Tyrannidae, the taxonomic name. Tyrant flycatchers are so named because of the aggressive behavior of kingbirds (of genus Tyrannus, the type genus of the Tyrannidae) when defending their breeding territory.

any of a group of passerine birds, of family Tyrannidae, that inhabit the Americas


tree kingfisher

tree kingfisher (plural tree kingfishers)

Any of the most numerous family, Halcyonidae, of kingfishers; they are widely distributed in Africa, Asia and Australia.


sacred kingfisher

sacred kingfisher (plural sacred kingfishers)

a tree kingfisher, Todiramphus sanctus, that inhabits Australian forests.


tyrannosaur

So far, Druckenmiller and his team have dug up species from seven different dino families: from big duck-billed dinos, ceretopsians, and tyrannosaurs to smaller thescelosaurs, leptoceratops, dromaeosaurs, and troodontids.

2021 September 21, Karen Hopkin, “Dinosaurs Lived—and Made Little Dinos—in the Arctic”, in Scientific American:

Instead it belongs to a new species of tyrannosaur, which the researchers have dubbed Tyrannosaurus mcraeensis in a paper published on January 11 in Scientific Reports.

2024 November 1, Meghan Bartels, “Enigmatic Dinosaur Skull Sparks Debate over Tyrannosaur Evolution”, in Scientific American:

Any large bipedal carnivorous dinosaur, of the family Tyrannosauridae, that lived in North America during the Cretaceous period.


Campine

A chicken of a breed originating from the aforementioned region.


horsewhip

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-horsewhip.wav


horsewhip

en-verb

horsewhip (third-person singular simple present horsewhips, present participle horsewhipping, simple past and past participle horsewhipped)

horsewhips (present singular third-person)
horsewhipping (participle present)
horsewhipped (participle past)
horsewhipped (past)

"Dangerous things, sir—dangerous things!" exclaimed Mr. Lintot, drawing a deep breath of air from the open window: "do you know, sir, Curl published a lampoon on Lord Hervey the other day, who said that he would have horsewhipped him if he could have found his way into the city. Only think, sir, of horsewhipping a publisher!" and Mr. Lintot grew pale with excess of horror.

1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Alteration”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 22:

He had told his wife that he would ask Fletcher to give up the borough, and that he would make that request with a horsewhip in his hand […] But there were difficulties. A man is not horsewhipped simply because you wish to horsewhip him.

1876, Anthony Trollope, The Prime Minister:

"It was when he horsewhipped Sam Brewer, the well-known Curzon Street moneylender, on Newmarket Heath. He nearly killed the man."

1927 March 5, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place”, in The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, London: John Murray, […], published June 1927 (May 1952 printing), →OCLC, page 277:

Ten years ago, with the secret out, they and South African judge James Harkess arrived back in London, with the husband/father saying he wanted to have Mr Clark horsewhipped.

2004 June 12, Vikram Dodd, “Coven's footnote to Clark diaries”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(transitive) To flog or lash with a horsewhip.


tuwhit tuwhoo

Thy tuwhits are lull'd I wot, / Thy tuwhoos of yesternight,[…]

[1842, Alfred Tennyson, “Second Song. To the Same [the Owl].”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, stanza 1, page 21:


Dalmatian

One of a breed of dog with a short, white coat with dark spots.

(demonym) A native or inhabitant of Dalmatia.


Dalmatian

An extinct Romance language that was once spoken in Dalmatia.


yearling

From Middle English yerling, yerlyng, equivalent to year + -ling. Cognate with Dutch jaarling (“yearling”), German Jährling (“yearling”).

"But is a plebe forbidden to stroll here?"
"If a plebe did have the brass to try it," replied Anstey slowly, "I reckon he would have to fight the whole yearling class in turn."

1910, H. Irving Hancock, Dick Prescott's Second Year at West Point, page 84:

As a yearling, he admitted to doing his part in ensuring that plebes knew their place at the Academy, […]

2014, Michael E. Haskew, West Point 1915 (page 57)

(US) A sophomore at West Point military academy.


stirk

From Middle English stirk, sterke, styrke, from Old English stīrc, stȳrc, stȳric, stīorc (“calf, a stirk, a young bullock or a heifer”), from Proto-West Germanic *stiurik, from Proto-Germanic *stiurikaz (“bullock”), diminutive of Proto-Germanic *steuraz (“steer”), equivalent to steer + -ock. Cognate with Middle Low German sterke (“stirk”), Middle Dutch stierick ("stirk"; compare Modern Dutch sterke (“young cow”)), German Sterk, Stärke, Stark (“stirk”). More at steer.

gloss

"stirk"; compare Modern Dutch <i class="Latn mention" lang="nl">sterke</i> (“young cow”)

But beware of MacPhadraick, my son; for when he called himself the friend of your father, he better loved the most worthless stirk in his herd, than he did the life-blood of MacTavish Mhor.

1827, [Walter Scott], chapter XI, in Chronicles of the Canongate; […], volume I (The Highland Widow), Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC, page 197:

Comprising eleven calved and in-calf cows and heifers, three barren cows, four fat cows and heifers, two sturks and three yearlings; fifteen in-lamb ewes and theaves, […]

1843 March 3, “To Be Sold by Auction, By B. Cheatle & Son”, in Leicester Journal, and Midland Counties General Advertiser, volume 92, number 4895, Leicester: James Jackson, page 2:

he could stop a running stirk by the horns, so strong he was in the wrist-bones.

1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 20:

(British, Scotland, dialectal, dated) A yearling cow; a young bullock or heifer.


mastiff

en-noun

mastiff (plural mastiffs or (archaic) mastives)

mastiffs (plural)
mastives (archaic plural)

From Middle English mastif, mastyf, an aberrant derivation (with influence from Old French mestif) from Old French mastin (modern French mâtin), from Vulgar Latin *mansuetinus (“tamed (animal)”), from Latin mansuetus (“tamed”).

der

At which time, they wryte that Demoſthenes told the people of Athens, the fable of the ſheepe and woulues, how that the woulues came on a time, and willed the ſheepe, if they woulde haue peace with them, to deliuer them their maſtiues that kept them.

1579, Plutarke of Chæronea [i.e., Plutarch], “The Life of Demosthenes”, in Thomas North, transl., The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romaines, […], London: […] Richard Field, →OCLC, page 908:

As ſaluage Bull, whom two fierce maſtiues bayt, / When rancour doth with rage him once engore, / Forgets with wary warde them to awayt, / But with his dreadfull hornes them driues afore, / Or flings aloft or treades downe in the flore, / Breathing out wrath, and bellowing diſdaine, / That all the foreſt quakes to heare him rore: […]

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 302:

They fill’d the Capitoll, and Pompei’s Circke: / Where, like ſo many Maſtiues, biting ſtones, / As if his Statues novv vvere ſenſitiue / Of their vvild fury, firſt they teare them dovvne: / Then faſtning ropes, drag them along the ſtreetes, […]

1603 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, Seianus His Fall, London: […] G[eorge] Elld, for Thomas Thorpe, published 1605, →OCLC, Act V, signature [M4], verso:

Avaunt, you curs! Be thy mouth or black or white, Tooth that poisons if it bite; Mastiff, greyhound, mongrel grim, Hound or spaniel, brach or him.

c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vi]:

The conquering foe they soon assail’d; / First Trulla stav’d, and Cerdon tail’d, / Until their Mastives loos’d their hold: / And yet alas! do what they could, / The worsted Bear came off with store / Of bloudy wounds, but all before.

1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto III.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 63:

Soon as Ulyſſes near th’encloſure drew, / With open mouths the furious maſtives flew: […]

1725, Homer, “Book XIV”, in [Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume III, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC, page 233:

Her, who did erst the lengthened fight maintain, / And heaped the death-pile red with Prankish gore, / The Vert fangs now to vassalage constrain: / The mastives old and young, Verrucchio bore, / Who in their lawless rule Montagna slew, / Make their teeth augres where they wont of yore: […]

1843, Dante Alighieri, translated by John Dayman, The Inferno of Dante Alighieri, Translated in the Terza Rima of the Original, with Notes and Appendix, London: William Edward Painter, […], page 173:

The Mastiff is a good fighter, and can kill a wildcat, taking the necessary punishment well, as we found out when we once trapped one of these small lynxes.

1896, Theodore Roosevelt, chapter 11, in Ranch Life and the Hunting-Trail, The Century Co.:

Neither of them could say how many years it had been since the week-long poisoning epidemic, which first took their father’s bulls, then his mastives, then the man himself; […]

1989, Bob Shacochis, “Les Femmes Creoles: A Fairy Tale”, in The Next New World, New York, N.Y.: Crown Publishers, Inc., →ISBN, page 22:

Milei’s allies reject his portrayal as an unbalanced powder keg, although they do not refute claims their leader takes counsel from his cloned mastiffs.

2023 November 19, Tom Phillips, “Argentina holds breath as far-right Milei seizes narrow runoff advantage”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

One of an old breed of powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dogs, used chiefly as watchdogs and guard dogs.


bull ring

(US, horse racing) An unusually short track, typically six furlongs or less for one lap.


retract

Partly:
* from retract (verb) (see etymology 1); and
* from Late Latin retractus (“a pulling back, retreat; refuge”), from Latin retractus (“withdrawn”), the perfect passive participle of Latin retrahō (“to draw or pull back, withdraw; to bring back; to compel to turn back; to recall; to get back, recover; to hold back, restrain, withhold; to remove, take away; to bring to light again; (Late Latin) to delay”) (see etymology 1) + -tus (suffix forming action nouns from verbs). Doublet of retrait, retreat, and ritratto.

doublet

Theſe Græcians alſo that made the retract, aduiſed Darius [III] to retire his Armie into the plaine of Meſopotamia, to the end that Alexander being entred into thoſe large fields and great Champions, he might haue inuironed the Macedonians on all ſides with his multitude; […]

1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], “Of Alexander the Great”, in The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], →OCLC, 4th book, §. IIII (Of the Vnwarlike Armie Leauied by Darivs against Alexander. […]), page 179:

A pulling back, especially (military) of an army or military troops; a pull-back, a retreat; also, a signal for this to be done.

(group theory) A subgroup of a given group such that there is a surjective endomorphism from the ambient group to the subgroup which is constant on the subgroup; in this case the subgroup is a retract of the ambient group. In symbols: H in G is a retract of G if there exists a surjective homomorphism σ from G to H with σ|_H= operatorname id.


retract

en-verb

retract (third-person singular simple present retracts, present participle retracting, simple past and past participle retracted)

retracts (present singular third-person)
retracting (participle present)
retracted (participle past)
retracted (past)
retract (infinitive)

From Middle French rétracter (“to annul; to reconsider; to withdraw”) (modern French rétracter (“to retract; to contract”)), and from its etymon Latin retractāre, the present active infinitive of retractō (“to retract, withdraw; to annul, revoke; to detract from; to undertake again; to reconsider; to remember; to decline, refuse”), from re- (prefix meaning ‘again’) + tractō (“to drag, haul, tug”) (from trahō (“to drag, pull; to extract, withdraw”) (see further at etymology 1) + -tō (frequentative suffix forming verbs)).

cog

To decline or fail to do something promised; to break one's word.


mickey

* (potato): From the common Irish name; compare murphy (“a potato”).
* (computer mouse resolution): An allusion to the cartoon character Mickey Mouse.

(Australia, informal) A well-known honeyeater, the Noisy Miner, Manorina melanocephala, of eastern Australia.


Molossian

A member of the ancient Epirote ethnos which Olympias came from.


sockeye

en-noun

sockeye (countable and uncountable, plural sockeyes or sockeye)

Borrowed from Halkomelem sθəqəy̓, probably meaning red fish.


dubb

From Arabic دُبّ (dubb, “bear”). The Anglicization appears only rarely or ad hoc. One Richard Pockocke in 1738 reported that the dubber was seen only rarely in Egypt.

The Eurasian brown bear Ursus arctos syriacus.


whippet

From whipped cream, since "whippits" are typically sold in the United States for use in making whipped cream.

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-whippet.wav

I was smoking hash from under glasses, sniffing glue, doing whippets, popping speed, smoking pot, dropping acid, and occasionally shooting dope.

2004, Sandra P. Riggin, Forbidden Memories: A Journey of Healing, →ISBN:

(slang) A cartridge of nitrous oxide (laughing gas), used as a recreational inhalant drug.


bossy

Diminutive of dialectal English boss, as used in the term boss-calf (which, like buss-calf, is a variant form of boose-calf, a calf kept in a boose (“stall”)).

A week before, while riding the prairies, Raidler had come upon a sick and weakling calf deserted and bawling. Without dismounting he had reached and slung the distressed bossy across his saddle, and dropped it at the ranch for the boys to attend to.

1903 February, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “Hygeia at the Solito”, in Everybody’s Magazine, volume VIII, number 2, New York, N.Y.: John Wanamaker, →ISSN, page 174, column 1:


gooney

Phoebastria immutabilis
Phoebastria immutabilis#Translingual

Any of several albatrosses, especially the black-footed albatross (Diomedea nigripes) and the Laysan albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis), that dwell primarily on islands in the Pacific Ocean, often near naval bases.


camelopard

→ Hawaiian: kamelopaki

Learned borrowing from Latin camēlopardalis, from Ancient Greek καμηλοπάρδαλις (kamēlopárdalis, “giraffe”).

der

καμηλοπάρδαλις

Alternative form: cameleopard


apar

The apar is mainly diurnal in its habits; and trusts for defence to its power of rolling itself into a ball, not dwelling in burrows like the members of the other genera.

1895, Richard Lydekker, The Royal Natural History, page 224:

The apars are noted, indeed, for their lively and restless manners.

1907, Ernest Ingersoll, The Life of Animals: The Mammals, page 478:

The three-banded armadillo, Tolypeutes matacus

обыкнови́нный шарово́й бронено́сец


deacon

Inherited from Old English diacon, from Ecclesiastical Latin diāconus, from Ancient Greek διᾱ́κονος (diā́konos, “servant, minister”).

(Protestantism) Anglicanism: An ordained clergyperson usually serving a year prior to being ordained presbyter, though in some cases they remain a permanent deacon.

(US, animal husbandry) A male calf of a dairy breed, so called because they are usually deaconed (see below).

(Scotland) The chairman of an incorporated company.


deacon

en-verb

deacon (third-person singular simple present deacons, present participle deaconing, simple past and past participle deaconed)

deacons (present singular third-person)
deaconing (participle present)
deaconed (participle past)
deaconed (past)

(Christianity, music) For a choir leader to lead a hymn by speaking one or two lines at a time, which are then sung by the choir.