5694 Etymology of 



the root from whence we take our word foul (and which runs back 

 finally to the Sanscrit puj, to rot) p and/ seem to be used inter- 

 changeably: hence I feel inclined to regard pole as merely a modifi- 

 cation of foul. 



Ferret is, German, fret, frettel ; French, furet ; Spanish, huron, 

 fur am ; — all taken from the Latin fur, a thief. It seems doubtful 

 whether the Latin viverra be really belonging to this root. 



Otter presents us with an etymological nut by no means easy 

 to crack. In German it is otter, in French loutre, in Latin Intra. 

 By fathering this upon some such word in Greek as xour^cc, which 

 would signify bather, we can at once get rid of the difficulty. But 

 the insuperable objection remains that the Greeks had no such name 

 for the otter. Now, just as ounce has passed through the French 

 Vonce into the Italian lonza, and as lierre (ivy) was originally Pierre 

 (from hedera), so loutre and lutra have originally come from V outre ; 

 so that the / is no essential part of the word. Again, in German otter 

 not only means our animal, but adder also ; and the two words are, 

 in fact, etymologic ally identical. Adder was originally written nedre, 

 the nether or creeping animal. It was a generic term, just like ser- 

 pent or reptile, both of which words mean creeper. This prefixed n 

 appears again in the Latin natrix, snake, and our own natter]&ok ; 

 and the parallel is further kept up by the Spanish for otter being 

 nutria. Thus I am inclined to believe that the resemblance of the 

 long, lithe otter to a swimming reptile will furnish us with the true 

 key to the origin of the name. 



Marten is in Anglo-Saxon mearthe, French marte, German mar- 

 der, Latin marten. It is named from its rapacious and murderous 

 disposition ; as Vossius and Gesner say, because it destroys poultry, 

 &c, " vi martia." It need hardly be said that the name of the house- 

 martin, however similar at first sight, has a wholly different origin. 



Dog is the Teutonic docke, French dogue, Phrygian daus. On 

 listening carefully, any tolerable ear will at once be struck with the 

 fact that very few of our dogs enunciate the "bow-wow" of our nur- 

 sery ideas. All, without exception, end off with a g, or strong guttu- 

 ral gh. " Bog," " wog" are the cries of many dogs ; but a very large 

 proportion prefix a d to the sound, and utter their own name very dis- 

 tinctly ; and from this fact I believe the name to be derived, as so many 

 other names are. I may mention that I had observed this peculiarity 

 years before I had turned my attention to etymology. On the origin 

 of the feminine term bitch 1 can only hazard a conjecture. In Ger- 

 man it is betze or pelze. Now, in French biche is a doe, and in Ger- 



