• Battle Masker@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    not a naughty name, but I wonder what was the scientist who named “Yellow-bellied sapsucker” was going through

      • funkless@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I mean the other names make sense with additional context

        Both Tit- and Cock- as prefixes used to mean small (no laughing in the back, please)

        And Hoary means grey-haired or old-looking

        edit as I had to look this one up: “Booby” is an ellision of “Bobo” - as in “No seas tan bobo” (Spanish) - meaning “silly, naive, dumb…” as they tend to be quite tame birds