From: Keith A. Clay (keithc@ramlink.net)
Date: Wed Dec 20 1995 - 17:36:15 EST
>At 12:24 PM 12/20/95, James D. Ernest wrote:
>>On Wed, 20 Dec 1995, Mark O'Brien wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Only one question remains... what *is* the Greek word for "squirrel"?
>>>
>>Not so fast! This was a Reader Response anecdote: the reader
>>must either look it up or overcome the inevitable compulsive
>>urge to do so. And don't bother looking in the Bible; you'll
>>have to do your squirrel-hunting in the Attic. (Or, if you wimp
>>out, just try your Merriam-Webster s.v. squirrel).
>
>Well, I think anyone could have found this out readily, and one didn't even
>need to go to Merriam-Webster. The surprising thing is that "squirrel" is
>derived from the Greek in the first place! SKI/OUROS: "shadow-tail,"
>Latinized as "Sciurus." And the word probably is pretty old, though I
>haven't tried to do a word-search on TLG for it. Pliny the Elder refers to
>it in the _Natural History_, and then Oppian in the 2d c. A.D. mentions it
>in his work on Hunting.
>
>I was expecting something more exotic like the German "Eichkatze"
>(oak-cat). But "shadow-tail" or perhaps "mirage-tail" is a pretty neat
>description, methinks.
>
>Carl W. Conrad
>Department of Classics, Washington University
>One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130
>(314) 935-4018
>cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
>WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
>
>
>
>
I knew this list would be useful. I should like to take my greek teacher on
a hunting trip and impress him with my new found Greek knowledge. Then I
will agonize the fact that he did not know what it was. Of course, I have
never been hunting, so hopefully I won't shoot him first.
keith a. clay
learning some new in greek everyday
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