Terminology
March 23rd 2010 21:00
Photo by Magnus Manske. Used in accordance with the terms of Wikimedia Commons’ GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.
Back in the days when I lived with my parents, one of my neighbours referred to my ducks as having beaks. I could not bring myself to correct her.
Years later, my colleague refers to cats’ muzzles as their snouts.
“Muzzles,” I corrected. “Pigs have snouts.”
My sister says cats have chins. No, they don’t. They have muzzles.
What’s with the dodgy terminology? Is it just ignorance?
This reminds me of another time when a friend and I were drawing seagulls. His seagull had webbed feet, mine didn’t. That led to a debate over whether or not seagulls have webbed feet.
“Only ducks have webbed feet,” I said which is actually not true. Just look at the platypus.
We hit the net. Okay, okay. So I was wrong. It’s not like I look at seagulls all the time. I ended up laughing at his drawing; his seagull had a dopey expression on its face.
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