Animal Footprints in English & How They Got There

In this space BL & UR will examine the linguistic footprints of animals in the English language. This trek will lead us along many paths as we consider how users of English have encountered the wor(l)ds around them in conquest, in discovery, in exchange–in wonder. A simple etymology will start each expedition and be enriched with a catalogue of the word’s development and use today. The etymology is the first step in this pas de deux; the second is the sociocritical analysis that lays bare how the word reflects the world where English users encountered it. This analysis also includes a broader contextualization of how humans have interacted with these non-human animals by examining the history of animal-human relationships.

Our first few words will serve as the beginning efforts to chart the many shared experiences among animals–human and otherwise. These experiences are sometimes gruesome and rightly elicit an outraged response to how humans have maltreated, abused, and killed non-human animals. Not all trails lead down this path, for there are other experiences that have left traces of the tender, interdependent relationship that humans have with their fellow earthhabitants.