Animals leave their footprints in several English words, including chatoyant, or “shimmering like a cat’s eyes” and sleuth, which is short for sleuth-hound, a kind of bloodhound used for sniffing out prey. Pets have also inspired...
We’ve talked before about how names of our pets often evolve over time. Cartoonist Scott Metzger captured this idea in a drawing of a Nickname Support Group for dogs and cats. This is part of a complete episode.
An Iowa listener says her father was known for being laconic. When the family tried to draw him out by asking his opinion, he’d often respond with the observation Well, I think it takes a big dog to weigh a ton, suggesting something along the...
Mary from Flagler Beach, Florida, says when she lived on St. Croix, it was common to describe overindulging in a plentiful meal by saying that everyone ate and drank like knockin’ dog. This Caribbean English expression referring to...
Jonathan Saha is an associate professor of history at Durham University in England. His latest book is Colonizing Animals: Interspecies Empire in Myanmar (Bookshop|Amazon), which chronicles how the lives of animals were irrevocably changed by...
Sherry in Williamsburg, Virginia, has long used the phrase cute little whiffet, a fond way of referring to something small and adorable, such as a chubby baby. Since the late 1700s, the term whiffet has been used to denote “a small...