Recently I came across a short list of words that had their roots in the names of various animals. Being the curious word guy that I am, I had to know more. Here’s some of what I found.

For starters, we get the words “hobby” and “hackneyed” from the horse. Prior to meaning one’s avocation, “hobby” was first an Old English name for a cart horse before it migrated to ponies and then children’s wooden horses.

“Hackneyed” is from the Old French “haquenée,” a gentle horse that was hired out to riders. Eventually it was applied to anyone having to do drudge work, before becoming an adjective for something worn out like a cliché.

Our word “bellwether” (a leader or trendsetter) comes to us by way of a flock of sheep. “Wether” is an Old English word for a castrated ram, and the lead ram got to wear a bell around his neck.

The carefree word “capricious” comes to us from “capro,” the Italian word for “goat,” an animal that often playfully skips about.

“Butcher” also is derived from “goat,” this time from the Anglo-Norman French “bocher,” which is taken from “boc” (goat).

If your dog (or you) has a pedigree, you have a certain bird to thank for it. According to theweek.com, pedigree comes from the Anglo-Norman “pé de grue,” for “foot of the crane.” It refers to the lines on genealogical charts that have the look of crane footprints.

Whether you’re a man or a mouse, the word “muscle” comes from the Latin “musculus,” literally meaning “little mouse,” because the shape and movement of some muscles (especially biceps) were thought to resemble mice.

“Canopy” is from “konops,” the Greek word for “mosquito.” In ancient Greece, a “kanopeion” was a chair or couch fitted with a mosquito net over it. Eventually, the name came to apply only to the net or covering.

If that bugs you, so will knowing that “formication” (that creeping, tingling sensation on your skin) comes from the Latin word for “ant” (formica) because it feels like the tiny creatures are crawling all over you.

The next time you find yourself in the produce section of the supermarket you’ll surely want to remember that we can thank the wolves that once lived in the Cantaloupo region outside Rome for the name of the luscious cantaloupe. The region got its name from “cantare,” meaning “to sing” in Latin, and “lupus,” meaning “wolf.” Because of the region’s name, the French called the melons from that region “cantaloup,” having been introduced there from Armenia.

Another canine gives us the word “vixen.” It comes from the old Germanic word “fyxen” (of a fox), before drifting to “fixen” and eventually to “vixen,” which Merriam-Webster notes, “has two very distinctive extended meanings: “a shrew” and “a sexy woman.” (A fox is a member of the animal family canidae, which makes it a canine. The term “vulpine” is an adjective used to describe characteristics associated with foxes.)

At this point, this column is going to the dogs, beginning with “tyke,” which is derived from the Old Norse “tík,” a nicer word for a female dog. Originally an insult in English, its meaning has now drifted to mean a cute little one.

We have the word “bawl” because in Latin a dog says “bau bau,” which comes from the verb “baulare” (to bark like a dog). In English “bawl” was first used to describe a dog’s howling, before it came to be used to describe a person sobbing and yelling.

According to vocabulary.com, “adulation” comes to us from a couple other Latin words, “ad” (to) and “ulos” (tail). It most likely has something to do with a dog wagging its tail in hopes of getting a treat from its person.

If it turns out that a treat is not forthcoming, the shortchanged pooch might become a cynic, a word that we get from the Greek “cynikos,” meaning “dog-like, churlish.”

Seems like every dog has its day – or at least a lot of words named after it.

Jim Witherell of Lewiston is a writer and lover of words whose work includes “L.L. Bean: The Man and His Company” and “Ed Muskie: Made in Maine.” He can be reached at jlwitherell19@gmail.com.

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