Names of Animals. 



5865 



French cabriolet, a word derived from cahi-i (caper), a kid, and era- 

 ployed to designate a light easy-going kind of vehicle, which was able 

 to traverse roads along which the original heavy and- lumbering cha- 

 riots vi'ere unable to venture. 



Sheep is the German schaf. This word is referred by Richardson 

 to schaffen, in the sense of to drive, the allusion being to the driving 

 of sheep before the shepherd, just as one of the Greek words for sheep 

 — TTpo^arov — may be derived from Tr^o^almv, to go before. It may be 

 that the schafer, or shepherd, was so called from the schaft, i. e. stick 

 (our "shaft") with which he drove his flock, and that thus his name 

 may have grown to be applied to the objects of his care ; or, possibly, 

 the etymology may embrace both these ideas. 



Richardson derives ram from the Anglo-Saxon hremman, to butt, 

 or to mm, as we say ; but, as we have already remarked, it is not 

 probable that any such verb will be derived from the habit of the 

 animal, but rather vice versa. Family resemblance leads us in quite 

 another direction. Ram is very nearly the same word as its Greek 

 equivalent ph, which is probably only another form of a^'pV, male ; 

 and this may be traced to an old root signifying strength. So, too, 

 tup is taken from a root which is now little used by us, but which is 

 found in the Greek tvttteiv, to strike. Wether, or weclder, is similarly 

 referred by Richardson to the Anglo-Saxon witheran, to resist. 



In the word ewe I think we may trace a very interesting story. It 

 is the same word as the Latin ovis and the Greek oi;, which are, pos- 

 sibly, imitative of the low inward bleat of the sheep, which is a very 

 distinct sound from its well-known " baa." There are many old 

 words wherefrom we may gather the fact that the wealth of our pri- 

 mitive forefathers lay in their cattle. Such words are the Hebrew 

 milx"! neh, which signifies both cattle and wealth or riches; the Greek 

 «T>jvoj, cattle, as compared with fiT>i/xot, a possession ; and the Latin 

 pecus, cattle, as compared with pecunia, money. 1 believe that our 

 present word indicates a similar state of things ; for although ovis is a 

 sheep, yet opilio is a shepherd ; and this latter word seems, at all 

 events, to be connected with ops, opes, riches. 



Lamb is the Danish lam ; German, lamm. In Welsh llanu is to 

 bound, and is nearly akin to leap, and other words of the same family. 

 I suspect, therefore, that the lamb is so called from its frolicsome 

 gambols. 



We may here refer to a fact which is but little known. The breed 

 of sheep from whence we obtain the merino wool was originally de- 

 rived from our own country. Stow and Baker tell us that in the year 

 XVI. c 



