I Never Knew There Was a Word for It - Adam Jacot De Boinod [146]
warp (Tudor–Stuart) bees in flight working themselves forward
cut (Gloucestershire) the second swarm of bees in the same season (hob or kive: the third swarm of bees)
spear (Sussex) the sting of a bee
narrow-wriggle (East Anglian) an earwig (the Yorkshire version is forkin robins)
dulosis (Modern Latin 1904) the enslavement of ants by ants
GREAT AND SMALL
The ordinary garden mole was known in Middle English (1100–1500) as a mowdiwarp. Later he became known as the little gentleman in black velvet (early 18C), the subject of a famous Jacobite toast to the mole that raised the hill that caused their oppressor King William to fall from his horse and die. Other animals have avoided such glorification …
fuz-pig (Somerset) a hedgehog
bubbly jock (Scottish) a turkey
pilser (b.1828) the moth or fly that runs into a candle flame
… but nonetheless their most obscure parts have been carefully noted …
junk (New Zealand 1837) the soft part of a sperm-whale’s head
dewlap (1398) the pendulous skin under the throat of cattle, dogs etc.
cnidocil (1884) a stinging bristle of the tentacle of a jellyfish
katmoget (Shetland Isles 1897) having the colour of its belly different from the rest of the body
acnestis (1807) that part of an animal (between its shoulders and lower back) that it cannot reach to scratch
fleck (Essex) the soft hair of a rabbit
… not to mention their intriguing behaviours …
mather (Gloucestershire) to turn round before lying down, as an animal often does
squeem (Ayrshire) the motion of a fish as observed by its effect on the surface of the water
pronk (1896) to leap through the air, as an antelope does
traffic (Gloucestershire) the tracks worn by rabbits or rats near their holes
… to say nothing of their mating habits …
epigamic (1890) attracting the opposite sex at breeding time
clicket (b.1811) the copulation of foxes
amplexus (1930s) the mating embrace of a frog and a toad
caterwaul (Middle English) the cry of cats at mating time
YELLS BELLS
At rutting time a badger shrieks or yells; a boar freams; a buck groans or troats; a ferret or stoat chatters; a fox barks; a goat rattles; a hare or rabbit beats or taps; a hart bells; an otter whiles; a roe bellows and a wolf howls.
SAFETY IN NUMBERS
Most of us know that geese on the ground come in gaggles. But were you aware that when they take to the air they become a skein? The collective nouns for other animals are often bizarre in the extreme:
a murder of crows
a watch of nightingales
an unkindness of ravens
a crash of rhinoceroses
a deceit of lapwings
a convocation of eagles
a business of ferrets
a wedge of swans
JUG JUG IN BERKELEY SQUARE
When it comes to the sounds of animals, some of our attempts at mimicry may leave something to be desired:
curkle (1693) to cry as a quail
winx (15C) to bray like a donkey
desticate (1623) to squeak like a rat
chirr (1639) to make a trilling sound like a grasshopper
cigling (1693) chirping like the cicada
jug (1523) the sound of the nightingale
skirr (1870) a whirring or grating sound, as of the wings of birds in flight
gi’-me-trousers (Jamaican English 1958) the sound a cock makes when it crows
PEN AND INK
In Lincolnshire, the sounds of horses’ hoofs were onomatopoeically described as butter and eggs, butter and eggs for a horse at a canter. If the animal happened to be a clicker, that is, it caught its front hoofs on its rear ones when it was running, there were extra beats in the rhythm and it went hammer and pinchers, hammer and pinchers. A horse at a gallop went pen and ink, pen and ink.
RUTH RUTH
And who knows how this strange variety of human calls to animals developed over the years?
muther-wut (Sussex) a carter’s command to a horse to turn right
woor-ree (East Anglian 1893) a waggoner or ploughman’s call to his horse to come to the right
harley-harther (Norfolk 1879) a call to horses to go to the left
aw whoop (Gloucestershire)