Why We Call A Horse A Pony and Other Interesting Animal Nickname Origins

The English language, especially American English, is a conglomeration of other languages, and everyday words and slang sometimes get misconstrued, leaving them with a new meaning. This type of mixup has happened a lot in the world of animal nicknames. “Bunny,” for example, was intended for an entirely different animal, and the word "pig" is widely mis used. From “bunny” and “kitty” to “puppy” and “pony,” here are the fascinating origins of common animal names.

Pony
Powny, the Scottish word to describe a very small horse, has been around since the mid-17th century. Back then, the direct definition of a powny was a horse less than 13 hands tall. It likely came from a (now obsolete) French word, poulenet, that had roughly the same meaning: “little foal.” A foal, of course, is the technical term for a horse less than one-year-old, but in English (and especially among children) we commonly use the term pony instead. The modern definition of a pony is a horse of a small breed that is less than 58 inches (14 and a half hands) tall at the shoulder.

The usage of “pony” as an indicator of something smaller than usual has spilled over (literally and figuratively) into barware. As “pony” can also mean “something that is smaller than standard,” the pony glass comes in two styles: a quarter-pint of beer or a one-ounce shot (sometimes called a cordial glass).

Bunny
“Bunny” is the word most commonly used to refer to a baby rabbit (or just any rabbit, period), but it’s technically incorrect. A baby rabbit is actually called a “kitten” or “kit,” and a newborn hare (a mammal that resembles a large rabbit) is called a “leveret,” but collectively, we tend to call them all bunnies. “Bunny” comes from the Scottish language; the use of bun in Scottish dialects can be traced back to the late 16th century, when it was used to describe a squirrel. In the late 17th century, it took on a new name, referring to rabbits OR hares.

Puppy
For over 500 years, “puppy” has been used to describe a small dog, although in the late 15th century, it was specifically “a woman’s small dog.” It likely came from the French word poupée, which means “doll” or “toy." The likely connection was that the small size of the dog resulted in it being petted and played with like a doll. In the 1590s, its direct meaning shifted from a “toy dog” to a “young dog,” which is how we still use it today. Around that time, it replaced the nearly obsolete word for puppy, “whelp,” which is now used as a verb for when a female dog gives birth.

Kitty
“Kitty,” a term that is now used as slang for any cat, originated from the word “kitten,” which has been around for nearly 700 years. It is an Anglo-French variant of kitoun, from the earlier Old French chaton or chitoun, meaning “little cat.” The word “kitty” itself was first recorded in 1719 as another word for a "young cat."

The use of “Kitty” as a common nickname for “Catherine” started around the 16th century, and around that time, it was also used as a sort of synonym for a young girl. This means that using “kitty” to describe a young girl was actually used BEFORE “kitty” to describe a cat. Other historic definitions of “kitty” include its use as a noun for “the pool of money in a card game” (from late 19th century American English) and as another word for “jail” (from early 19th century England). Perhaps most obscurely, in the early 20th century, “to have kittens” meant “to lose one’s composure.”

Pig
It seems as though all the words for swine have become muddled over the centuries. Now, “pig,” “swine,” “hog,” and sometimes, “boar,” are used interchangeably, but there are differences between all of these terms. A “pig'' (from Middle English pigge) is technically the word for a young swine that isn’t an adult yet (similar to “puppy” or “kitten”) but instead, we usually use “piglet” or “piggy,” leaving “pig” for a much broader definition. The word “piggy” (also spelled “piggie”) has been used since the 18th century, to denote a “little pig.” A “hog” (from Old English hogge) is technically a swine that weighs over 120 pounds, but again, “hog” is usually used for any adult swine. Further differentiating the porcine creatures, a boar (from Old English bar) is a domestic male pig, and a sow (from Old English sugu or su) is a domestic female pig. There is some modern understanding of a boar as a wild pig with tusks, but the word technically applies to all uncastrated domestic male pigs (and some other species, including badgers, guinea pigs, and hedgehogs).

Lexophile" is a word used to describe those that have a love for words, such as "you can tune a piano, but you can't tuna fish", or "to write with a broken pencil is pointless."
Below are more examples of lexophiles:

01. When fish are in schools, they sometimes take debate.

02. A thief who stole a calendar got twelve months.

03. When the smoglifts in Los Angeles U.C.L.A.

04. The batterieswere given out free of charge.

05. A dentist and amanicurist married. They fought tooth and nail.

06. A will is a dead giveaway.

07. With her marriage, she got a new name and a dress.

08. A boiled egg is hard to beat.

08. When you've seen one shopping center you've seen a mall.

09. Police were summoned to a daycare center where a three-year-old was resisting a rest.

10. Did you hear about the fellow whose entire left side was cut off? He's all right now.

11. A bicycle can't stand alone; it's just two tired.

12. When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.

13. The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine is now fully recovered.

14. He had a photographic memory which was never developed.

15. When she saw her first strands of grey hair she thought she'd dye.

16. Acupuncture is a jab well done. That's the point of it.

17. Those who get too big for their britches will be totally exposed in the end.

Palindrome Definition
A palindrome is a word or sentence that reads the same forward as it does backward. The words a and I are perhaps the simplest and least interesting palindromes; the word racecar and the name Hannah are more interesting and illustrative. Neither spaces nor punctuation are usually taken into consideration when constructing sentences that are palindromes -- one of the most famous palindromes is "A man, a plan, a canal, Panama" -- but when the spaces are properly positioned as well, so much the better. An example would be the also famous palindrome "Able was I ere I saw Elba," purportedly spoken by Napoleon, referring to his first sighting of Elba, the island where the British exiled him.

Palindromes are a type of palingram called letter palingrams. A palingram is a sentence in which the letters, syllables, or words read the same backward as they do forward. The sentence, "He was, was he?" is a word palingram, because the words can be placed in reverse order and still read the same. The sentence, "I did, did I?" is not only a word palingram but a letter palingram (or palindrome) as well.

A number of interesting palindromes are given below for your amusement.
Words

• aibohphobia
• alula
• cammac
• civic
• deified
• deleveled
• detartrated
• devoved
• dewed
• evitative
• Hannah
• kayak
• kinnikinnik
• lemel
• level
• madam
• Malayalam
• minim
• murdrum
• peeweep
• racecar
• radar
• redder
• refer
• reifier
• repaper
• reviver
• rotator
• rotavator
• rotor
• sagas
• solos
• sexes
• stats
• tenet
• terret
• testset

Places

• Glenelg (Australia)
• Kanakanak (Alaska)
• Kinikinik (Colorado)
• Navan (Meath, Ireland)
• Neuquen (Argentina)
• Ward Draw (South Dakota)
• Wassamassaw (South Carolina)
• Yreka Bakery (Yreka, California)

Not Quite Legitimate

• Retteb, si flahd noces eht tub, but the second half is better.
• Doctor Reubenstein was shocked and dismayed when he answered the ringing telephone, only to hear a strange, metallic, alien voice say, "Yasec iovn eilacilla temeg! Nartsa raehoty lnoenoh pelet gnig, nirehtde rewsnaehn ehw. Deya! Msid! Dnadek cohssaw nietsne buerro, tcod?"

Phrases and Sentences

• A dog, a plan, a canal: pagoda.
• A man, a plan, a canal: Panama.
• A new order began, a more Roman age bred Rowena.
• A tin mug for a jar of gum, Nita.
• A Toyota. Race fast, safe car. A Toyota.
• Able was I ere I saw Elba.
• Animal loots foliated detail of stool lamina.
• Anne, I vote more cars race Rome to Vienna.
• Are we not drawn onward, we few, drawn onward to new era?
• Are we not pure? "No sir!" Panama's moody Noriega brags. "It is garbage!" Irony dooms a man; a prisoner up to new era.
• As I pee, sir, I see Pisa!
• Barge in! Relate mere war of 1991 for a were-metal Ernie grab!
• Bombard a drab mob.
• Bush saw Sununu swash sub.
• Cain: a maniac.
• Cigar? Toss it in a can. It is so tragic.
• Daedalus: nine. Peninsula: dead.
• Dammit, I'm mad!
• Delia saw I was ailed.
• Denim axes examined.
• Dennis and Edna sinned.
• Depardieu, go razz a rogue I draped.
• Desserts, I stressed!
• Did I draw Della too tall, Edward? I did?
• Do good? I? No! Evil anon I deliver. I maim nine more hero-men in Saginaw, sanitary sword a-tuck, Carol, I -- lo! -- rack, cut a drowsy rat in Aswan. I gas nine more hero-men in Miami. Reviled, I (Nona) live on. I do, O God!
• Doc, note I dissent: a fast never prevents a fatness. I diet on cod.
• Drab as a fool, aloof as a bard.
• Drat Saddam, a mad dastard!
• Draw, O coward!
• Draw pupil's lip upward.
• Ed, I saw Harpo Marx ram Oprah W. aside.
• Eva, can I stab bats in a cave?
• Evil did I dwell; lewd I did live.
• Gateman sees name, garageman sees name tag.
• Go hang a salami; I'm a lasagna hog.
• Goldenrod-adorned log.
• Golf? No sir, prefer prison-flog.
• Harass sensuousness, Sarah.
• I roamed under it as a tired, nude Maori.
• Laminated E.T. animal.
• Lay a wallaby baby ball away, Al.
• Lepers repel.
• Let O'Hara gain an inn in a Niagara hotel.
• Live not on evil.
• Lived on Decaf; faced no Devil.
• Lonely Tylenol.
• Ma is a nun, as I am.
• Ma is as selfless as I am.
• Madam, I'm Adam.
• Madam in Eden, I'm Adam.
• Marge lets Norah see Sharon's telegram.
• May a moody baby doom a yam.
• Meet animals; laminate 'em.
• Mr. Owl ate my metal worm.
• Murder for a jar of red rum.
• Never odd or even.
• No, Mel Gibson is a casino's big lemon.
• No cab, no tuna nut on bacon.
• No lemon, no melon.
• No sir -- away! A papaya war is on.
• On a clover, if alive, erupts a vast, pure evil; a fire volcano.
• Party boobytrap.
• Poor Dan is in a droop.
• Reviled did I live, said I, as evil I did deliver.
• Rise to vote, sir.
• Saw tide rose? So red it was.
• Senile felines.
• So many dynamos!
• Some men interpret nine memos.
• Stab nail at ill Italian bats.
• Stack cats.
• Stella won no wallets.
• Step on no pets.
• Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots!
• Straw? No, too stupid a fad; I put soot on warts.
• T. Eliot, top bard, notes putrid tang emanating, is sad. I'd assign it a name: gnat dirt upset on drab pot-toilet.
• Tarzan raised Desi Arnaz' rat.
• Ten animals I slam in a net.
• Too bad I hid a boot.
• Was it a car or a cat I saw?
• Wonder if Sununu's fired now.
• Won't I panic in a pit now?
• Won't lovers revolt now?
• Yo, banana boy!
• Yo, Bob! Mug o' gumbo, boy!
• Yo, bottoms up! (U.S. motto, boy.)

Another list of palindrome examples:

Don't nod Dogma: I am God Never odd or even Too bad – I hid a boot Rats live on no evil star No trace; not one carton Was it Eliot's toilet I saw? Murder for a jar of red rum May a moody baby doom a yam? Go hang a salami; I'm a lasagna hog! Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas! A Toyota! Race fast... safe car: a Toyota Straw? No, too stupid a fad; I put soot on warts Are we not drawn onward, we few, drawn onward to new era? Doc Note: I dissent. A fast never prevents a fatness. I diet on cod No, it never propagates if I set a gap or prevention Anne, I vote more cars race Rome to Vienna Sums are not set as a test on Erasmus Kay, a red nude, peeped under a yak Some men interpret nine memos Campus Motto: Bottoms up, Mac Go deliver a dare, vile dog! Madam, in Eden I'm Adam Oozy rat in a sanitary zoo Ah, Satan sees Natasha Lisa Bonet ate no basil Do geese see God? God saw I was dog Dennis sinned

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP.'

It's easy to understand  UP , meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake  UP At a meeting, why does a topic come  UP ? Why do we speak  UP  and why are the officers  UP  for election and why is it  UP  to the secretary to write  UP  a report?

We call  UP  our friends. And we use it to brighten  UP  a room, polish  UP  the silver, we warm  UP  the leftovers and clean  UP  the kitchen. We lock  UP  the house and some guys fix  UP  the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir  UP  trouble, line  UP  for tickets, work  UP  an appetite, and think  UP  excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed  UP  is special.

And this  UP  is confusing: A drain must be opened  UP  because it is stopped  UP  We open   UP  a store in the morning but we close it  UP  at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed  UP  about  UP To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of  UP , look the word  UP  in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes  UP  almost 1/4th of the page and can add  UP  to about thirty definitions. If you are  UP  to it, you might try building  UP  a list of the many ways  UP  is used. It will take  UP  a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP , you may wind  UP  with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding  UP . When the sun comes out we say it is clearing  UP.

When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things  UP.

When it doesn't rain for a while, things dry  UP.

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it  UP , for now my time is  UP , so it is time to shut  UP!

What is the first thing you do in the morning & the last thing you do at night?   U-P