anate_ means "apple with seeds." We also find the
apricot, lemon (_pomcitron_), peach, and quince all described as apples.

At least one fruit, the _greengage_, is named from a person, Sir William
Gage, a gentleman of Suffolk, who popularised its cultivation early in
the 18th century. It happens that the French name of the fruit,
_reine-claude_ (pronounced _glaude_), is also personal, from the wife of
Francis I.

Animal nomenclature shows some strange vagaries. The resemblance of the
_hippopotamus_, lit. river-horse, to the horse, hardly extends beyond
their common possession of four legs.[28] The lion would hardly
recognise himself in the _ant-lion_ or the _sea-lion_, still less in the
_chameleon_, lit. earth-lion, the first element of which occurs also in
_camomile_, earth-apple. The _guinea-pig_ is not a pig, nor does it come
from Guinea (see p. 51). _Porcupine_ means "spiny pig." It has an
extraordinary number of early variants, and Shakespeare wrote it
_porpentine_. One Mid. English form was _porkpoint_. The French name has
hesitated between _spine_ and _spike_. The modern form is _porc-epic_,
but Palsgrave has "_porkepyn_ a beest, _porc espin_." _Porpoise_ is from
Old Fr. _porpeis_, for _porc peis_ (Lat. _porcus piscis_), pig-fish. The
modern French name is _marsouin_, from Ger. _Meerschwein_, sea-pig;
_cf._ the name _sea-hog_, formerly used in English. Old Fr. _peis_
survives also in _grampus_, Anglo-Fr. _grampais_ for _grand peis_, big
fish, but the usual Old French word is _craspeis_ or _graspeis_, fat
fish.

The _caterpillar_ seems to have suggested in turn a cat and a dog. Our
word is corrupted by folk-etymology from Old Fr. _chatepeleuse_, "a
corne-devouring mite, or weevell" (Cotgrave). This probably means
"woolly cat," just as a common species is popularly called _woolly
bear_, but it was understood as being connected with the French verb
_peler_, "to _pill_, pare, barke, unrinde, unskin" (Cotgrave). The
modern French name for the caterpillar is _chenille_, a derivative of
_chien_, dog. It has also been applied to a fabric of a woolly nature;
_cf._ the botanical _catkin_, which is in French _chaton_, kitten.

[Page Heading: NICKNAMES OF ANIMALS]

Some animals bear nicknames. _Dotterel_ means "dotard," and _dodo_ is
from the Port. _doudo_, mad. _Ferret_ is from Fr. _furet_, a diminutive
from Lat. _fur_, thief. _Shark_ was used of a sharper or greedy parasite
before it was applied to the fish. This, in