[Corpora-List] Moving Lexical Semantics from Alchemy to Science

[Mike Maxwell]

On 1/29/2011 1:56 PM, Angus B. Grieve-Smith wrote:
> I have no evidence, but it's my distinct impression that whoever came up
> with that name for the insects was intending to make a pun.

They look like sticks--enough so that if they don't move, you probably 
think they *are* a stick.  And then they move, and you realize it's an 
insect.  So I think the name is quite appropriate, and I don't 
personally think any pun was involved in naming them.  They're also 
known as "stick insects" and "stick bugs."
-- 
	Mike Maxwell
	maxwell at umiacs.umd.edu
         "A library is the best possible imitation, by human beings,
         of a divine mind, where the whole universe is viewed and
         understood at the same time... we have invented libraries
         because we know that we do not have divine powers, but we
         try to do our best to imitate them." --Umberto Eco

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