4 ms·

Maybe that's why we call them "ma- mmals" ?

• nemomarx 2y ago
  Think mammaries, which comes from an old word for milk, so probably from mother, yeah.
  • martyvis 2y ago
    And when the made up word "bouba" is presented I immediately thought of the slang word "boob" for breast so that round shape is a good fit.(Also bubble and bauble are also near sounding and round)
• gjm11 2y ago
  You say that like it's a joke, but they're called mammals because they have mammae -- breasts, udders -- and although I don't know completely for certain I'd be flabbergasted if Latin mamma weren't very directly related to mama etc. (Wiktionary says it's from Greek "mamme" which it alleges is a back-formation from babies' "mama", and cites a learned-sounding reference, but I don't know whether anyone actually has more than conjecture here.)