[Lexicog] What is a bat?

[Fritz Goerling]

In Noah J. Jabobs' amusing "Naming Day in Eden" (The MacMillan Company
Collier-MacMillan Ltd., London 1958), p. 16, I found the following
interesting quote on how the bat is named in different languages:

"...how did Adam name the bat? Which characteristic impressed him at
 the moment of naming? Did its blindness move him to call it
 'murciélago'(Spanish), its baldness 'chauve-souris'(French), its
 shyness 'pipistrello'(Italian), its leathery skin 'Läderlapp'(Swedish)
 or 'böregér'(Hungarian from 'bör,' leather; 'egér,' mouse), its
 preference for the night 'nukteris'(Greek), its resemblance to the
 mouse 'Fledermaus'(German) or 'letutsaya mysh'(Russian), the sound of
 its flapping wings 'watwat'(Arabic), its winglike hands 'chiroptera'
 (Greek 'chir,' hand, plus 'pteron,' wing), its resemblance to a lily(!)
 'liliac'(Rumanian), its reputed love of bacon 'bat' (Old English
 'backe,' bacon)? The Chinese have conferred a number of laudatory
 names on this mouse-like mammal, such as 'embracing wings, heavenly
 rat, fairy rat, night swallow,' and use it as a symbol of happiness
 and long life because its name 'fu' in Chinese happens to be a
 homonym which means both 'bat'and 'prosperity.'"

I have found African stories about the bat being sad because it does
not know where it belongs.
How do you name the bat in your language? And where would you put it
in a domain dictionary?

Fritz Goerling
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