51吃瓜

Catty

It seems horribly unfair to adorable cats that catty is a human descriptor meaning 鈥渄evious or spiteful鈥� (and usually in reference to female behavior). What gives?

The word cat has been around since the year . But then, in the Middle Ages, cat became one of the many offensive terms against women and was slang for 鈥�prostitute.鈥� The association might have been made because prostitutes, like cats, roamed the streets and alleyways. Maybe the prostitutes had 鈥渃at fights鈥� behind the dumpster, but the ladies wouldn鈥檛 have been described as catty until much later.

In , the word catty pounced on the scene with the same meaning it carries today. Maybe cat鈥檚 negative metaphorical meanings from centuries past were part of the mentality surrounding its usage at the time. (Also, Victorians didn鈥檛 really like cats for a while. They viewed kitties as scruffy, devious street animals.)听

Dogged

Dogs鈥攖he animal鈥攈ave always been 鈥渕an鈥檚 best friend,鈥� and yet the word dog when used to describe a person (鈥渉e鈥檚 such a dog鈥�), has negative connotations. , the adjective dogged also meant 鈥渓ike a dog鈥� in a disparaging way. Of course, this was in the Middle Ages when, it seems, cats, dogs, and animals in general weren鈥檛 being treated very well and, in turn, their names were used as terms to mistreat humans.

But then, in the 1770s, when fox hunting was a popular pastime, being dogged no longer signified a violent, uncouth, slobbering, mangy oaf. Such a transformation is probably thanks to the hunting hound, who pursued its prey with relentless determination and rewarded its master with a feast on the table or a trophy on the wall. Doggedness now carries that sense of resolute and even stubborn single-mindedness in pursuing personal (person) goals.

Fishy

Saut茅ed fish is delicious to eat when fresh, but if it sits around for a while it starts to smell like a corpse rotting in aged seaweed and salty armpit sweat. Not pleasant and not safe to eat. So too are fishy things and people (the 鈥渘ot pleasant鈥� part!).

When a person or situation seems suspicious, or doesn鈥檛 smell right, it鈥檚 time to take several steps back and run.

The adjective fishy was used as far back as the . At that time it referred more to the fish鈥檚 literal slippery, slimy characteristics. Hop forward about 150 years and people began to describe off-tasting foods as fishy. It took another three hundred years for fishy to achieve its full-figured figurative meaning associated with people: In 1840, fishy was first recorded to mean 鈥渟hady鈥� or 鈥渜uestionable,鈥� creating a spectacular metaphor of slippery rot that people still use to this day.

Of course, if a person literal smells fishy . . .听as in, 鈥渓ike a fish,鈥� you might want to politely encourage them to bathe鈥攊n fresh water.

Asinine

Asinine people are 鈥渟illy鈥� or 鈥渟tupid.鈥� If you think you hear an 鈥渁ss鈥� in asinine, you鈥檝e spotted the animal-inspiration behind this word. The word derives from the Latin , 鈥渁ss, dolt, blockhead.鈥� What is it about asses or donkeys that led people to equate them with foolishness and unintelligence? Like cats, we think asses got the short end of the stick when humans transformed their name into an adjective.

The association has less to do with the actual animal than with how the animal has been described in literature over centuries. Likely, the connection was introduced in Aesop鈥檚 Fables a couple thousand years ago. In 鈥�The Ass and the Lapdog,鈥� the ass was the farmer鈥檚 favorite 鈥渂east of burden.鈥� But, after the donkey imitated the lapdog by yipping and licking and prancing around, he was beaten for being a 鈥渃lumsy鈥� jester, or fool鈥攐stensibly, in the story, the ass was considered stupid for thinking he could be someone he wasn鈥檛. Poor guy.

Hawkish

Hawks are birds of prey, with razor talons and a sharp beak for ripping and tearing into flesh. Hawks also have excellent vision. When, in the early 1700s, hawkish meant 鈥渉awk-like,鈥� it probably carried with it connotations of the 鈥減redator with excellent eyesight,鈥� or, more broadly, someone with a keen skillset. This broader usage explains why parents today watch their kids 鈥渓ike a hawk,鈥� (vigilantly), without being charged with murder.

In 1798, Thomas Jefferson called upon these characteristics to paint a more militaristic picture, using the term war hawk to signify 鈥渙ne who is eager for the fray鈥� as he described the Federalists who were pressing for war with France.

By the 1960s, Vietnam War-mongers were simply being called hawks. Those who advocated peace were the doves. The adjective hawkish appeared around this time, continuing to evoke that pro-warfare stance. Just as a real hawk doesn鈥檛 wait around for prey, but actively attacks, a hawkish person advocates aggressive behavior, or military action, to accomplish a goal.

Sheepish

Nowadays, sheepishness relates to bashfulness or embarrassment, particularly after doing something wrong or foolish. You鈥檇 probably cast a sheepish grin after running up behind someone you think you know, covering their eyes, and exclaiming a silly 鈥淕uess who!鈥� only to find out the person whose face you鈥檙e grabbing is a panicked stranger鈥檚.

What sheepish qualities of sheep could have led to the meaning of sheepish? According to sheep experts, ovines are gregarious animals within their flock. Social animals probably grin a lot, right? Hence, 鈥渟heepish grin.鈥� (Of course, we鈥檙e anthropomorphizing here.) Sheep stay in groups while grazing. But if separated from the group, a lone sheep will become skittish and agitated. Maybe that鈥檚 what people remarked on when sheepish began to mean 鈥渇oolish鈥� in the 17th century.

In the late , the word acquired the sense of shy foolishness and awkwardness among strangers. A dictionary from 1708 paints a dismal picture of a 鈥渓ubberly [clumsy] fellow, who is half a fool, and has no life, blood, nor spirit in him; unable to utter a word for himself, thro鈥� foolish sheepishness, and whose very lips are pale and languid.鈥�

Can we call him a poor little lamb?

Sluggish & slothful

Many animal adjectives, like sheepish, started out simply meaning 鈥渓ike a sheep鈥� or 鈥渓ike [insert animal].鈥�

Over time, particular qualities or behaviors of the animal鈥攅.g., the sheep鈥檚 skittishness鈥攂ecame associated with human features and behaviors. But, with sluggish and slothful, the process is reversed. Wait a minute鈥攖hat means sluggish people aren鈥檛 鈥渓ike slimy, squidgy, turd-y gastropods鈥�? And, a slothful couch-potato isn鈥檛 鈥渓ike a slow-moving arboreal mammal鈥� sprawled in a puddle of drool on the sofa?

Sluggish and slothful people are definitely lazy, so much so that it was the laziness of human beings that inspired the name for the creatures slug and sloth, not the other way around! In the Middle Ages, sluggish and slothful described slow, indolent, idle people centuries before they evoked slippery snails and cute tree-hanging mammals.

Squirrelly

Who knows, slugs and sloths may actually be spirited and industrious creatures, they just go about it in a way that鈥檚 not visible to humans. One thing is for certain: They鈥檇 never be described as squirrelly.

In the , squirrelly meant 鈥渁bounding in squirrels鈥�; that means people first used the adjective to describe a place (like a park). It sounds funny now to describe 鈥渁 squirrelly park,鈥� but back then, it was simply a place teeming with little nutcrackers. Over time, the adjective started to draw upon the essence of the squirrel itself, linking up with a quality that the squirrel seemed to naturally display as it spent its life frantically finding and burying nuts.

To humans, sometimes squirrels look a little 鈥渘uts鈥� or crazy, running full speed in one direction only to halt instantly and then scamper down a different path. They look fidgety, jumpy, or 鈥渇lighty,鈥�听which is what the adjective squirrelly means today when describing a person.

Fun tangent: comes from an ancient PIE root meaning, essentially, 鈥渟hadow butt.鈥�听 听

Chicken

Chicken was first used as an adjective to mean 鈥渨eak鈥� or 鈥渟cared鈥� as recently as the 1930s, but the cluckers have been called upon to imply human cowardice for hundreds of years. It鈥檚 not clear why chickens are connected to weakness and fear, but maybe it鈥檚 because centuries of raising, killing, and eating chickens have shown that a 200 lb. farmer stomping into the chicken yard with an axe would turn any creature (large or small) into a quivering pile of 鈥渃hicken-sh*t.鈥�

Before people were saying things like 鈥渟he鈥檚 too chicken to call him back,鈥� they were simply calling 鈥渉er鈥� a chicken, in the noun sense. The earliest example of this in literature goes back to 1600 when a character in William Kemp鈥檚 Nine Days鈥� Wonder calls his enemy “a hoddy doddy! a hebber de hoy!, a chicken! a squib.鈥� Hoddy doddy meant 鈥渇ool,鈥� hebber de hoy an 鈥渁wkward gawky youth,鈥� and squib a 鈥減altry fellow鈥� or 鈥渃oward.鈥�

Dictionary.com tip: These are great words to bring back today if you鈥檙e too chicken to call someone 鈥渃hicken.鈥�