herp
n.— «Yet another informal grade name, favoured by American zoologists, is “herp.” Herpetology is the study of reptiles (except birds) and amphibians. “Herp” is a rare kind of word: an abbreviation for which there is no long form. A herp is simply the kind of animal studied by a herpetologist, and that is a pretty lame way to define an animal. The only other name that comes close is the biblical “creeping thing.”» —by Richard Dawkins The Ancestor’s Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution , 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)