2j6 Names of Animals [FOURTH WEEK 



derived from the old cruel sport of baiting badgers with 

 dogs. 



Monkey is from the same root as monna, a woman; 

 more especially an old crone, in reference to the fancied 

 resemblance of the weazened face of a monkey to that of 

 a withered old woman. Madam and madonna are other 

 forms of words from the same root, so wide and sweeping 

 are the changes in meaning which usage and time can 

 give to words. 



Squirrel has a poetic origin in the Greek language; its 

 original meaning being shadow-tail. Tiger is far more 

 intricate. The old Persian word tir meant arrow, while 

 tighra signified sharp. The application to this great animal 

 was in allusion to the swiftness with which the tiger leaps 

 upon his prey. The river Tigris, meaning literally the river 

 Arrow, is named thus from the swiftness of its current. 



As to the names of reptiles it is, of course, to the Romans 

 that we are chiefly indebted, as in the case of reptile from 

 reptilus, meaning creeping; and crocodile from dilus, a 

 lizard. Serpent is also from the Latin serpens, creeping, 

 and this from the old Sanskrit root, sarp, with the same 

 meaning. This application of the idea of creeping is again 

 found in the word snake, which originally came from the 

 Sanskrit naga. 



Tortoise harks back to the Latin tortus, meaning twisted 

 (hence our word tortuous) and came to be applied to these 

 slow creatures because of their twisted legs. In its evolu- 

 tion through many tongues it has suffered numbers of 

 variations; one of these being turtle, which we use to-day 

 to designate the smaller land tortoises. Terrapin and its old 



