Saturday, May 17, 2008

A is for Aardvark and Aardwolf

Before reading halfway through the first page of my dictionary, I came across an etymology of a not uncommon word from an uncommon language and a word with which I was unfamiliar. We all know of the aardvark, also commonly known as an anteater. I didn't realize the etymology was from the Afrikaans language, a close relative of Dutch. Aard means earth, and vark is from varken, which is pig (it's just a short linguistic leap from Afrikaans/Dutch varken to English pork), making the aardvark an earth pig. Here's a picture of the porcine creature.



In the same entry, I read of another interesting African animal called an aardwolf, a hyena-like mammal. Unlike the hyena, though, the aardwolf is insectivorous, subsisting on a diet almost entirely of insects.


Orig: 5/17/08

3 comments:

Bonnie said...

So, I'm wondering ... did you post while you were away or did you do these using the future posting feature ? :)

And Aardwolf ... hmm. Learn something new everyday ! Especially when visiting yeshliblog !!

Sabba and Nanny said...

Posted while with Ellie and Ryan but also used the future posting feature. I will use that often in the future.

Ellie said...

Anteaters are one of Aidan's favorite animals.