Is that serpent in the garage a garter snake, a garden snake, a gardener snake, or a mouse snake? All are apt names for the same snake, but the original is garter snake, which takes its name from the sartorial accessory. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Garter Snakes”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Grant.
Yes, this is. Who am I speaking with?
Hi, this is Peter Love from East Hampton, Connecticut.
Hey, welcome.
What can we do for you?
So I was out in the woods with my dog the other day, and I’m very fond of snakes. And I run into them all the time in Connecticut, which you wouldn’t think of as a pot that are snakes, but we actually have lots of them here. And was in the woods and saw a little snake curled up in the sun on the path and was staring at it and thinking that’s a garter snake. And I just was wondering about the term garter snake and thinking, you know, some people call them garden snakes, some people call them gardener snakes, and was just wondering what was correct and if there was a specific correct name for them and where the name garter snakes came from, if that’s right.
Well, you know what garters are, right?
Yes, I do.
They’re those bands that used to be fashionable for men to wear, holding up stockings. I don’t know if they were ever fashionable, but they were necessary.
There we go.
Unless you wanted your stockings pooled around your ankles.
Right.
These days, most people just know a garter from the little ceremony at weddings.
Right? Yeah. But even there it tends to be decorative. She doesn’t need it.
Yes. Yes, there we go.
But you’re right. The snake was named for its resemblance to that little fashion accessory.
Yeah, it wasn’t like the garters that you see in weddings that are covered in frills and bows and things. It was just a strip of elastic or rubber or string or cloth or something.
Yeah, and it had stripes running the length of it, running all around it, just like that snake. So when we talk about the real name of this kind of snake, we’ve got opposing forces here, right? We’ve got the scientific name, which is pretty strict, and then the common name, which is not necessarily the same everywhere.
Yeah. Yeah. In fact, I think in Florida, garter snake also refers to the coral snake, which is poisonous.
Right.
That bright color one.
And you have heard gardener snake and garter snake, as if it’s a snake that’s guarding your body or something, and grass snakes and what else?
Garden snake.
Garden snake, yeah.
Mouse snake, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, but the original was garter.
Garter, yeah.
Garter snake.
Well, that’s very interesting.
So you do find all of these different terms for the exact same species, exactly the same. It just depends on where you’re from and what tradition you come from.
Thank you, Peter.
You’re great fun, sir.
Yeah, happy hiking.
Thank you very much.
It’s been great.
Okay.
Take care.
Take care.
Bye-bye.
Email words@waywordradio.org.
