Animal Slang and the Nature of Words

by Charlotte Overby
Illustrated by David Besenger

There's no escaping it. Nature is everywhere.

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We step outside and there it is. In the yard, sky, field and woods. Even in the city, birds nest in the trees, and mice peek around the corner. Nature is so . . . well, everywhere, that it's even in our language. English phrases and expressions are full of references to animals. "He's silly as a goose." "She's got a frog in her throat." "Don't be batty!"

Dr. Norman P. Knowlton has been collecting examples of our "living language" for several years. His project has been a little like collecting stamps, books or baseball cards. Whenever he heard a new expression or something about a natural feature that caught his interest, he wrote it down. And all kinds of people have contributed to his collection.

"I have three daughters and one son" he says, "and they've all pitched in a few. Sometimes my daughter will call me long-distance just to tell me some new ones."

Dr. Knowlton was born in St. Louis in 1922, and grew up in Missouri exploring the woods, hunting and learning a lot about nature. "I started writing a lot of this down about two years ago after visiting my daughter in Denver. I couldn't sleep the first night there-just because it was a new place-so I stayed up and started writing," he explains. Since then, his collection has been revised, expanded and re-typed about six times.

Knowlton's living language collection now consists of almost 250 typed pages of names of animals, sea creatures, plants, fish and trees, along with other words, slang terms and anecdotes-or stories-that come from them. For example, starting with the word rat, Knowlton collected the words "rat race," rat fink," "ratbite fever" and other "rat-words" that struck his fancy. He read old dictionaries and other resource books to find his material.

"I started with 1,640 pages of Webster's Dictionary and moved on from there," he says.

Dr. Knowlton has a distinguished medical career in St. Louis and was on the faculty of the medical school at Washington University. Has anyone ever told him he might be just a bit "loony" for working on this collection about nature and language?

"Not yet," he says. "It's just been a whole lot of fun." Here are some of the entries in Dr. Knowlton's collection, which he calls "Our Living Language."

FACT or fiction?

When it comes to the real animal, sometimes references in slang expressions are right on target. Other times, the expression couldn't be farther from the truth. Here are some examples.

She's as Daffy as a Duck
(so what makes us think ducks are daffy?)

Most people think of the cartoon character, Daffy. He is supposed to be a duck, and he certainly is daffy. But what about real ducks? They make a ruckus when they "quack." When they walk, they appear to waddle, which can make us smile. But ducks are expert fliers and swimmers and are quite beautiful.

Don't Be a Silly Goose
(but why do we call geese silly?)

Many geese migrate thousands of miles between Missouri and Canada every year-without getting lost. They couldn't be that "silly" to go all that way. They are territorial and will honk and chase people away from their nests. They protect their young with such vigilance-almost stubbornness-that we sometimes describe their behavior as silly.

My Little Brother was Playing Possum
(what was he supposed to be doing?)

If your brother was playing possum, chances are he was supposed to be taking a nap. Instead, he was faking it. Playing possum is an expression used to describe people who are pretending to be asleep or dead. Real possums sometimes go to "sleep" or play dead when they're confronted with danger. Their bodies go into a kind of paralyzed state. When the danger passes or the would-be predator leaves, the possum "wakes up" again, and goes about its business.

You Bird Brain!
( . . . well?)

If someone calls you a bird brain, they're trying to say you ain't too smart. Real bird brains are not very big. The brain of a songbird, for example, weighs just about 1 gram. A human brain weighs 1300 grams (about 3 pounds). Proportionate to the size of it's body, however, a bird's brain is just about the right size.

My Granddad is Crazy as a Coot
(what's a coot?)

Coots are birds. They are related to birds called rails, though many people mistake them for ducks. Coots have a funny way of running. They run-walk and skitter along shore, but also dance along the top of the water. They often patter along the surface of the water while flapping their wings. They look kind of odd and are amusing to watch.

She's a Wise Old Owl
(how do we know owls are wise?)

This is a tough one. But of all the birds of prey, owls are perhaps the best hunters. They have keen eyesight and sharp and strong talons, and they hunt many different animals, sometimes including cats, puppies and lambs. Over the years, humans have decided owls simply look smart. Maybe because their feathers appear as if they wear glasses or because of the slow, almost thoughtful way they turn their heads.

You're as Slow as a Turtle
(are you fast as a rabbit?)

Ok. Turtles are fairly slow. But that doesn't mean they don't travel great distances for their size. A three-toed box turtle, for example, may have a home range of up to 4.9 miles. And don't forget the story about the turtle and the hare: slow and steady, wins the race.

I Made a Beeline for the Door
(do bees fly in lines?)

Honey bees are wonderful, complex and highly social animals. They beat their wings about 280 times per second and can fly up to 15 miles per hour. And they really do fly in a beeline. Using landmarks and the sun, bees take the most direct flight possible between two points.

Our Living Language