pic unrelated?

>>5113080
there are flags and an alligator

For the umpteenth time I've mentioned this on this board, "owl" in Mandarin is maotouying: cat head eagle.
Another fun one is penguin: chi e. Literally "tiptoe goose".

>>5113073
in polish there are many funny scientific names for different insects and spiders. First you give them a cute-sounding first name followed by stupid epithet - like "psotnik zakamarnik" which literally means "troublemaker corner dude"

File: confused argonian.gif (3.5 KB)

3.5 KB GIF

here we call tarantulas literal bird-spiders

Spider is 蜘蛛
It comes from the character 蜘 meaning spider and the character 蛛 meaning spider.

>>5113099
There's loads of those in Chinese. IIRC the word for "frog" translates to "water chicken". In Japanese a hornet is a "sparrow-bee", I assume they copied that from China.

File: 1775329937830204.webm (3 MB)

3 MB WEBM

zobel

>>5113145
polish is generally funny

In Norwegian a bat is called a 'flaggermus', translated that would- Oh.

I recently learned that the Norwegian word "dyr" (animal) and the English word "deer" both come from the same etymological roots dating back to prehistory. It was one of the first sounds our ancestors made, and it means "animal". Which means that the sound Northern Europeans used when they saw an animal that was not the same kind of animal they said they'd say [d:yr]! Which is cute to imagine. But furthermore it means the word 'regnsdyr' (reindeer) is composed of the words 'horned' and 'animal'. Which is also a very old word and thus reasonably means that ancient cavepeople saw "an animal" and thought that was worth pointing out, but then also some animals with horns, and thought that was worth pointing out as well.

However like much fun trivia this is probably not true, but I will still state is fact because the world needs more fun stories about animal names.

File: 43293217.jpg (94.7 KB)

94.7 KB JPG

>>5113073
Microscopic coal

>>5113073
Tits lol

>>5113073
Florida, Connecticut, Maryland, and... Minnesota? With Norway as her big sis? What is this image. what is the relevance

>>5114154
>flaggermus
kek

File: Bullfinch_at_Pennington_Flash.jpg (130.8 KB)

130.8 KB JPG

In Sweden we call this the DOOM LORD.

>>5113073
the french word for bat is "bald-mouse"

>>5114837
The Italian word is pipistrello, which always sounded funny to me. Doesn't have any particular meaning other than "bat", just the sound is humorous, like humuhumunukunukuapua‘a, the state fish of Hawaii (which means "fish with a pig's nose")

File: Paramecium.jpg (184.2 KB)

184.2 KB JPG

Slipper animal, except english doesn't have a diminuitive form for 'animal'. Slipper animal-chan would be the weeb form, I suppose.

norwegian:
'mus' (mouse) is our equivalent of the english 'pussy', which adds some extra fun to 'flaggermus' et al.

'piggsvin' (hedgehog) -> 'spiky/quick swine'
'flodsvin' (capybara) -> 'flood/river swine'
'marsvin' (guinea pig) -> 'ocean swine'
'grevling' (badger) -> 'someone who digs'
'svintoks' (badger) -> 'swine badger'
'apekatt' (monkey) -> 'ape cat'
'spekkhogger' (orca) -> 'blubber-hewer'
'vaskebjørn' (raccoon) -> 'washing-bear'
'øyenstikker' (dragonfly) -> 'eye stabber'
'kjøttmeis' (great tit) -> 'meat tit'
'fossekall' (white-throated dipper) -> 'waterfall-geezer'
'pupper' (pupae) -> 'boobs'
'skrukketroll' (woodlouse) -> 'wrinkle-troll' / 'perineum-troll'
'rumpetroll' (tadpole) -> 'ass troll'
also my fucking cat

>>5114154
>But furthermore it means the word 'regnsdyr' (reindeer) is composed of the words 'horned' and 'animal'
*reinsdyr
'regnsdyr' would be 'rain-animal' - also the etymology of 'reinsdyr' is disputed, but 'horned' would make a lot of sense
here's a fun one in that similar vein though: 'kloakkdyr'

>>5114928
forgot one

'brilleslange' (indian cobra) -> 'eyeglasses-snake'
with an added piece of fun, as 'slange' can mean not only snake, but also 'tube' or 'hose'

>>5114884
you could jury-rig "animalette" or "animaling" as diminutives, they're colloquial but understood readily.

File: germananimals_ENG.jpg (940.3 KB)

940.3 KB JPG

obligatory

In English we call anteaters "anteaters" which just means guy who eats ants

The word for bat in French is chauve-souris, which means bald mouse, and it pisses me off because I can't imagine seeing a flying rat for the first time and thinking its most novel feature is being kind of baldish and not the fact that it fucking flies.

Also honorable mention to the french word for bird, oiseau, and while it's a perfectly fine word it's just written in a silly "cram as much silent letters in there as possible" way. It's pronounced like wazoo and you'd never guess its spelling.

>>5115285
Oiseau is spelled exactly as it would be if you're following French rules. As evidence, see crOIssant and the name bEAU. What're ya gonna complain about next? How grenouille shouldn't be pronounced as it is?

>>5113073
In english, we call flying mice “bats” which makes no sense out of context. But in context, it’s clearly a reference to the old sport of hitting bats with clubs (that is, with a bat), a direct ancestor to cricket, itself so named because crickets were dangled from strings to lure in the batters next victim.

>>5115295
>following French rules.
Yeah "cram as much silent letters in there as possible"

>>5113073
It's not my native lang but I think Croatian for shark is "morski pas" which means "sea dog". I noticed it when watching Jaws in Croatia, was funny as fuck.

>>5115299
Not any more silent that the H in ship or the second E in tree are. Those two examples follow English "rules" (which pretty much change every other word; English has rules like a ghoti has bicycles).

File: Galloisiana_nipponensis_2.jpg (481.5 KB)

481.5 KB JPG

>>5113145
Świerszczokaraczan.
Cricket, but also a cockroach.

>>5115310
"Sea Dog" was the common English name for sharks prior to the 16th century.

File: QingQilin.jpg (80.8 KB)

80.8 KB JPG

When the Giraffe was first brought to China it was believed to be a mythical qilin, resulting in most asian languages naming Giraffes after qilins or some derivative.

File: dramatic_organ_music.jpg (514.9 KB)

514.9 KB JPG

I met an old man in Texas who referred to pocket gophers as "salamanders". It confused the hell out of me, and I came to learn that it's supposedly a bastardization of "sand mounder"
pic unrelated.