NAMES OF ANIMALS, FROGS, AND FISH 255 



raccoon is from the Indian arrathkune (by further 

 apheresis, coon). 



Rhinoceros is pure Greek, meaning nose-horned, 

 but beaver has indeed had a rough time of it in 

 its travels through various languages. It is hardly 

 recognisable as bebrus, babbru, and bbru. The 

 latter is the ultimate root of our word brown. 

 The original application was, doubtless, on ac- 

 count of the colour of the creature's fur. Otter 

 takes us back to Sanskrit, where we find it udra. 

 The significance of this word is in its close kin- 

 ship to udan, meaning water. 



The little mouse hands his name down through 

 the years from the old, old Sanskrit, the root 

 meaning to steal. Many people who never heard 

 of Sanskrit have called him and his descendants 

 by terms of homologous significance! The word 

 muscle is from the same root, and was applied 

 from a fancied resemblance of the movement of 

 the muscle beneath the skin to a mouse in motion 

 — not a particularly quieting thought to certain 

 members of the fair sex ! The origin of the word 

 rat is less certain, but it may have been derived 

 from the root of the Latin word radere, to scratch, 

 or rodere, to gnaw. Rodent is derived from the 

 latter term. Cat is also in doubt, but is first 

 recognised in cat alas, a diminutive of canis, a dog. 

 It was applied to the young of almost any animal, 

 as we use the words pup, kitten, cub, and so forth. 



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