Names of Animals. ' 5863 



par excellence. The Greek ^Y\p leads us, through its dialectic varia- 

 tion f'iip, to the Latin /era, by which, and the French y?6?r, we arrive 

 at ovly fierce. Buck is from backer^ to strike, and when we compare 

 w ith it the French houc^ a he-goat, we shall readily arrive at the con- 

 clusion that it was a general title, applied to the males of horned 

 animals, and more lately extended to others, such as the rabbit, &c. 

 Still the stag preserves the same pre-eminence which we have seen to 

 be indicated by the name of deer, for " a buck " is, again par excel- 

 lence^ understood to refer to the stag alone ; while, if we apply the name 

 to other animals, we always specify the kind. A further instance of 

 this is found in the name we give its flesh, venison. This name w^as 

 originally given to the flesh of all beasts killed in hunting, as w^e see 

 by its derivation from the French vener^ to hunt ; but it was soon 

 restricted to the flesh of the royal beast of chase alone. 



Do^ is the Anglo-Saxon T^uich^ deyn ; French, daim ; Latin, 

 dama. Richardson derives it from the Greek hHiJ^oc^ timidity ; but this 

 is one of those mere guesses which always excite suspicion. May it 

 not be a kindred form with 5a/^aX/j, a heifer, and Sa/.taXo^, a calf? These 

 words come from Saptaw, which is identical in meaning and etymology 

 wdth our tame, Doe^ like buck, may have originally been a sort of 

 generic term, referring to the gentleness and tameness of the female 

 animals as compared with the males. 



Hart is the Anglo-Saxon heord; German, hart. It is the same 

 word as hard, and is meant to imply strength, an idea which we trace 

 very strongly developed in the kindred words in Greek. Hind is 

 akin to the Latin hinnuSy a mare ; Greek, mo;^ a filly. The Latin 

 hinnio, to neigh, and our own word whinny, show us that these names 

 are imitative of the voice of the animal ; and it seems probable that 

 the low quiet cry of the doe has caused the name to be transferred to 

 her. In all probability /aiv?i is another word from whence we may 

 infer the high estimation in which the stag was held in the old days 

 of the chase. It is the French faon, fan, which is contracted from 

 the Latin infans, a word which signifies " speechless," and is, properly, 

 only applicable to human infants. 



Skinner suggests that the origin of the name stag is to be found in 

 the Saxon stigan, our stick, in allusion to its sharp antlers, an ety- 

 mology w^hich requires confirmation from the analogous term buck. 

 Junius, with his usual mere punning guess, takes stag from ctth/xe/v, to 

 go in order. Tooke believes it to be akin to the word stage, and to 

 allude to the lofty bearing and erect head of the animal 



Fallow is an adjective, describing the general colour of the deer to 



