6858 



Etymology of 



title of puss seems to be the same as the Latin pusa^ or pusilla^ tiny, 

 a name of endearment originally applied to a little child, and thus 

 transferred generally to any pet, especially to the cat, and, from the 

 similarity of its long soft fur, to the hare. Talbot's conjecture as to 

 the origin of ptiss is no less amusing than it is curious and far-fetched. 

 Finding that it is applied to both the cat and the hare, he argues that 

 the Latin lepiis (hare) may have been corrupted in French into "le 

 puss," and that we have borrowed our word from this. But in Welsh 

 the hare is called cdth eithen, i, e. furze or gorse cat. Little children 

 call their warm neck-comforters by the name of " pussies," and the 

 soft ^'calkins" of the willow and sallow take their name from the 

 same source, so that I have little doubt that the origin I have suggested 

 for puss is the correct one. Grimalkin^ a name which^'is sometimes 

 given to the cat, is compounded of grey (French, gris) and Malkin^ a 

 diminutive form of " Moll," and is one of the many cases in which a 

 Christian name has been applied to some familiar animal. 



Walrus is the Norwegian hvalroSy i. e. whale-horse. Another Nor- 

 w^egian name for the animal is rosmar, which is similarly compounded 

 of rosj horse, and mor^ the sea. 



The whale, in the Scandinavian dialects, is called hval or hvalo. 

 In Greek it is <paXyj and (pa?^a7va ; in Latin, lalcBua. All these are 

 identical with our word, and are modifications of the same root as 

 appears in our verb to wallow, and which we ultimately trace to the 

 Hebrew pdlaU to roll. Old Isaac Walton tells us that Pliny " speaks 

 of the fish called the Balaena, or whirlpool ; " and assuredly the un- 

 wieldy wallowing of these monsters of the deep would naturally sug- 

 gest their distinctive appellation. 



Dolphin is the Greek hx(pig, a name which was in all probability 

 originally applied to our porpoise ; and, when we consider the origin 

 and aflSnities of this latter word, we can hardly thhik the resemblance 

 between h>^(p\Q and ^B>.(pak (a pig) to be a purely accidental one. 



Porpoise is corrupted from the French porcpoisson, hog-fish. Simi- 

 larly it is called rnarsouin, and in German meerschwein, i, e. sea-swine, 

 and in the Breton dialect morhuc, or sea-hog ; showing that the re- 

 semblance of its general contour to the back of a pig [is generally 

 appreciated. 



In Mr. Bell's ^ British Quadrupeds ' we read Grampus, says the 

 Rev. Mr, Barclay, is the Saxon hranjisk, which signifies grunting 

 fish. I cannot, however, help thinking that the more obvious and 

 probable etymology is the French grand poisson, great fish." There 

 is an objection to this latter suggestion, namely, that it does appear, 



