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>> A male ferret is called a hob; a female ferret is a jill. A spayed female is a sprite, a neutered male is a gib, and a vasectomised male is known as a hoblet
by ada1981 8y ago
>> A male ferret is called a hob; a female ferret is a jill. A spayed female is a sprite, a neutered male is a gib, and a vasectomised male is known as a hoblet. Ferrets under one year old are known as kits. A group of ferrets is known as a "business", or historically as a "busyness". Other purported collective nouns, including "besyness", "fesynes", "fesnyng", and "feamyng", appear in some dictionaries, but are almost certainly ghost words. <<
- twic 8y agoThis reminds me, that an old name for a rabbit is a "coney", and an old name for a rabbit warren is a "coney-borough", a fortified town of rabbits. Over time, that became simply "burrow".
- meko 8y agoInteresting, since the dutch word for rabbit is 'Konijn', pronounced like 'konen'.
- dekhn 8y agoConey Island in NY is named for the Dutch, "Rabbit Island"
- pacaro 8y agoAs both Dutch and English are West Germanic languages, close cognates are pretty common
- ncmncm 8y agoSpain was named by the Phoenicians after the huge number of rabbits they saw there. But they had no word for rabbit, so they used their word for hyraxes. Which are, by the way, the closest extant taxon to the elephants. Which themselves are named just for their thick skin.
- twic 8y agoHyraxes, in turn, look rather like chunky ferrets. As you say, they aren't closely related, but i suppose if you're a mammal which lives in holes in the ground, there aren't many body shapes which work.
- semi-extrinsic 8y agoIn scandinavian languages (including Finnish, which hints at the fact that they don't have a lot of rabbits there) it's very similar: "kanin", pronounced ka-neen. Apparently it traces via old French and German back to the Latin "cuniculus" which actually means rabbit. Meanwhile, "hare" (or "Hase" in German) remains also in English.
- discreteevent 8y agoCoinín in Irish.
- kiscica 8y agoPronounced, originally, to rhyme with "honey" and "money". The obvious vulgar homophony explains why the word is obsolete today and, when it is used (as, for example, in the toponym "Coney Island"), is invariably pronounced to rhyme with "phony" and "bony." Mind you, the pun would already have been perceived in the original Latin (cuniculus/cunnus) and indeed this pair may ultimately be related; cuniculus (whence also conejo, coniglio, coelho, Kanin[chen], etc.) meant not just "rabbit" but also "rabbit hole."
- mratzloff 8y ago> Pronounced, originally, to rhyme with "honey" and "money". Or "bunny"? :-) Of course, that word is of a completely different etymology (Scottish).
- russh 8y agoThanks for signing up for Ferret Facts! You will now receive fun daily facts about FERRETS! >o<
- ada1981 8y agoLearn the ONE WEIRD TRICK Ferret owners are going CRAZY over.