Animals with misleading names

[George Thompson]

A joke heard in my early college years (ca. 1960) claimed that the
species of bird called the "titmouse" was misnamed, in that it was
neither a mouse nor a tit.

Actually, the titmouse is a "tit" in the ornithological sense, but the
humor of the joke turns on tit = breast.

GAT

On Sat, Mar 23, 2013 at 5:59 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> Tweet from: Maria Popova @brainpicker
> Date: 10:02 AM - 23 Mar 13
> Tweet: Animals with misleading names – an illustrated confusion-buster
> http://j.mp/Pj0gFw
>
> [Being excerpt]
>
> Peacock Mantis Shrimp
> Not a peacock.
> Not a mantis.
> Also, not a shrimp.
>
> King Cobra
> Not a cobra. Also, snakes are typically self-governing.
>
> [End excerpt]
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



--
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org