creature vs. critter

[Jonathan Lighter]

How about _Arthro plura_, the six-foot long proto-centipede whose spine-chilling, fossilized tracks have been found in New Mexico ?  ( http://www.nbc17.com/news/4383474/detail.html )

"I wouldn't tangle with this monster," said Spencer Lucas, paleontology curator at the Museum of Natural History in Albuquerque. "I wouldn't let children approach it, or pets. Definitely try to find a giant can of Raid and see if you can back this guy out of your house (and) into your yard, and hopefully call animal control and let them deal with it."

Critter...or creature ?

(For lagniappe, the online report from NBC News includes an ex. of "distance" for "distant.")

JL

James C Stalker <stalker at MSU.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: James C Stalker
Subject: Re: creature vs. critter
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'll accept bugs as critters. But my dog, a terrier mix, aka Benji, is a
critter as well. A KY friend refers to his beagle as a critter too. Big
bugs, I guess.

Jim

Duane Campbell writes:

> ----- Original Message -----
>
>> "Discover all there is to know about our prehistoric creatures and
>> critters - on _Paleoworld_!"
>>
>
>
> I'm not sure how wide spread it is, but Cornell entomology department (and
> I
> believe the practice originated there) uses the term "critters" to refer
> to
> bugs generically, arthropods, grouping insects, which are a particular
> type
> of bug, and spiders, which are another type. They can't use "bug" because
> that is aspecific type of insect.
>
> D
>



James C. Stalker
Department of English
Michigan State University


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