ETYMOLOGY OF NAMES OF MUSTELID.E. 31 



the two are often confounded bj^ persons not learned in natural 

 history, or considered of similar signification. It is an old 

 word, appearing in the Latin of Cicero as natrix (Qu. Acad. 2, 

 28); in the Gothic of Ulfilas as nadrs, masculine moreover, 

 Ev. Luc. 3, 7, where the Greek text has k'/id^a, and Luther 

 translated " otter^\ bat at that time already feminine in the old 

 Northern nadhra. The same word is also found in Celtic. This 

 wide diffusion of the word makes it probable that the Latin 

 natrix is not to be interpreted as a swimmer, as if from nare 

 =natare; in general, people take '^ natter ^^ for a poisonous 

 serpent, not simply as a water-snake, and the specific applica- 

 tion of the term to the Cohiher natrix Linn, is of later origin. 

 Many philologists derive the word from an old root, 7ia (Ger- 

 man mihen, Latin neo, Greek ^iw)^ in the sense of coiling 

 {''Himschnilren ^') ; cf. Latin 7iecto. 



We may briefly treat of other names of the Otter. The 

 Celtic languages have a particular term, Gaelic dobran^ Cymric 

 dyfrgi. The Tartaric Ixama has probably given name to the 

 largest tributary of the Volga. In many, particularly Asiatic, 

 languages, our animal is called by some equivalent of '' water- 

 dog" or "river-dog"; as in the Dekan pani-cutta ; in the Ca- 

 naries (and also in the East Indies), nlr-nai; Malayan, andjing- 

 ayer ; whilst the xove- ■xoTo.tj.tot of Aelian, 14, 21, appear to have 

 been Otters. 



