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[Ivan Van Laningham]

Hi All--

Charles G Waldman wrote:
> 

[snippage]

> This mailing list is so educational, I learn something here every day,
> and often it has nothing to do with computers.  Your posting sent me
> off to my Webster's to look up "lagomorph" and "rodent" to see what
> the difference is.  Here's the Webster's entry for "rodent":
> 
>  Main Entry: ro·dent
>  Function: noun
>  Etymology: ultimately from Latin rodent-, rodens, present participle
>  of rodere to gnaw; akin to Latin radere to scrape, scratch, Sanskrit
>  radati he gnaws
>  Date: 1859
>  1 : any of an order (Rodentia) of relatively small gnawing mammals
>   (as a mouse, a squirrel, or a beaver) that have in both jaws a single
>   pair of incisors with a chisel-shaped edge
>  2 : a small mammal (as a rabbit or a shrew) other than a true rodent
> 
> So at least according to Webster's sense 2, it's legitimate to call a
> rabbit a rodent, even though it's not a "true" rodent.  Gnaw on that!
> 
> didactically yours,
>              cgw

Linnaeus would disagree; probably vehemently.

lagomorph lag'o-morf, n an animal of the order Lagomorpha of gnawing
mammals having two pairs of upper incisors, eg hares and rabbits. -
adj                                lagomor'phic or lagomor'phous. [Gr
lagos hare, and morphe form]  (From Chamber's dictionary.)

Rodentia, of course, is the scientific nomenclature for mice, squirrels,
beavers, etc.:

	See http://arnica.csustan.edu/ESRPP/mamkeyp2.htm

Insectivora is the order for shrews, etc.:

	See http://arnica.csustan.edu/ESRPP/mkinsect.htm

Collaterally, see http://members.vienna.at/shrew/

As Lincoln pointed out, saying that a mule has five legs doesn't make it
true.  Webster's is citing colloquial usage, as it would for bugs;
everyone calls every small arthropod a ``bug,'' but damn few bugs *are*
bugs.

<daddy-longlegs-confound-even-the-experts>-ly y'rs,
Ivan
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Ivan Van Laningham
Callware Technologies, Inc.
ivanlan at callware.com
http://www.pauahtun.org
See also: 
http://www.foretec.com/python/workshops/1998-11/proceedings.html
Army Signal Corps:  Cu Chi, Class of '70
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