ETYMOLOGY OF NAMES OF MUSTELID^. 25 



the French have formed the verb fouiner, to pry iuto or rum- 

 mage about.* 



Tbe Celtic, Sclavonic, and Finnish names are entirely differ- 

 ent, as are the Cymric hela,\ the Eussian, Polish, Bohemian, 

 and Crainish kuna, Finnish and Laplandish 7idta; with which 

 the Magyaric nyest or 7test accords. 



iLTis [Piitorius foetidus].— The German name is found under 

 many variations, according to localities, particularly in North 

 Germany, as iltnis, eltis, Danish ilder, Swedish iller ; further- 

 more, with Tc, illi, ulk^ according to Bechsteiu in Thuringia even 

 Haus-unk^ which is the well known name of a reptile [toad]; 

 and again with &, elb-thier, elh-katze^ which has been sought to be 

 derived from elben = elves, the nocturnal sprites; but the oldest 

 form of the word known to me, illihenzus of Albertus Magnus 

 (thirteenth century), is little unfavorable to this etymology. The 

 Dutch hunsing stands entirely alone. The Romanic languages 

 name the species simply from its bad smell, as the Italian puzzola^ 

 French patois, mediaeval Latin putoHus, the pusnais of French 

 animal-fable, which is the same as punaise, a bed-bug. The 

 second portion of the English name, pole-cat., is of obvious 

 meaning; agreeably to which we find in Diefenbach (Celtica, ii, 

 p. 435) that in Wales, in early times, the animal was kept, or, 

 more likely, suffered to remain, about houses, to destroy mice.}: 

 Another English name, Jitcher, Jitchet [or fitch — Tr.], related to 

 the old French fissan, apparently indicates the same capacity in 

 which the animal was employed or regarded. The Sclavonic 

 languages have a particular word, tschor, tschorz, or tscher, in 

 Carniolau ticor, in Roumanian dihor. 



By Pliny (8, 55, 84), this species is called viverra, probably 

 an Iberian word no longer occurring in later languages, and 

 which Linnaeus first reapplied in zoology to the Civet-cats. 

 Since the Middle Ages, however, two forms of the name of this 

 animal have simultaneously appeared, the first without t, furo 

 of Isidor of Sevilla (seventh century), whence the present Por- 



* " Durchsuchen, durchstobern " ; so defined by the writer, but other au- 

 thority defines fouiner to slink off, to sneak away ; used only in trivial 

 style. But either meaning is sufficiently characteristic of the animals. — Tr. 



t Obviously related to the modern French lelette—see beyond. — Tr. 



tThe whole English word, poJe-cat, is by some simply rendered "Polish- 

 cat", as if the animal were originally from Poland. In America, the word 

 has been very commonly transferred to the Skunks, Mepliitis : Catesby's pol- 

 cat is such, and Kalm's fiskatta is translated ^>o7e-crtf. — Tr. 



