APRIL 2007
 Hello!
Can you imagine having the job of naming all the animals and birds? That’s the task Adam was given, as we read in Genesis 2:19: “the man gave names to all the cattle, all the birds of heaven and all the wild beasts.”
We don’t know what names he came up with, but we can tell what our ancestors thought about wild creatures when we look at the origins of the names we have now.
Orang-utan comes from the Malay word for wild man, while moose comes from the American-Indian Narragansett for he strips, referring to its habit of stripping bark from a tree. Hamster is Old English for corn-weevil, and raccoon is an Algonquian word meaning he scratches with the hands.
Corgi is from the Welsh for dwarf dog, and beagle is from the Old French for noisy person from its loud bark. Spaniel means Spanish dog, and dachshund is German for badger dog, being the right shape to burrow into badger setts.
Caterpillar is from the Latin catta + pilosus, literally hairy cat. Crocodile is from the Greek kroke and drilos, meaning pebble worm from its habit of basking on shingle. Worm is a bit understated for a croc! The alligator gets its name from the Spanish el lagarto, the lizard.
Hippopotamus means river horse and walrus is whale horse. Baboon comes from the old French for grimace, and platypus is Latin for flat foot.
Most birds are named after the cry they make, such as whippoorwill, crow and heron with a few exceptions. Flamingo is from the Spanish flamengo – flame-coloured and ostrich was originally called megas strouthos, meaning great sparrow (the understatement of the ancient world) and also strouthokamelos because of its long camel-like neck.
Happy puzzling!
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