This is just because English sucks, or English speaking people suck at naming things. Let me show you how it's done:
In Dutch:
Horseshoe crabs are called "dagger crabs", and look what it's dragging behind.
Cuttlefish are called "ink fish", and tadaa.
Jellyfish are "kwallen", which means roughly "annoying person", and they're pretty annoying.
Bald eagles are "American Eagles", you're welcome.
A sand dollar is called a "sea coin", because of where it lives and what it resembles, which is way more accurate.
And a fly is still a fly.
In Dutch, the Common Drone Fly is also called "Blinde Bij", which means "Blind Bee". This is because this animal is neither blind nor a bee and the Dutch are very good at naming things
Animals who do not live up to thier names Dutch edition.
Dagger Crabs - Don't have daggers and not crabs.
Ink Fish - Not actually fish.
Kwallen- Not actually a person.
American Eagles - Found all over Canada and upper Mexico.
Sea Coins - Can't actually be used as coins.
Nobody refers to Canada or Mexico as America. North America is not America and American is exclusively used to refer to the US.
Well apparently not exclusively so, at least outside of the US, because the American Eagle is not just US-American.
Not exclusively, no. It usually means the US, but it's far from exclusive. Especially when it comes to species names, the assumption is absurd.
Funny how Canadians don't want to be called "American", Mexicans don't want to be called "American", but everyone from outside the area INSISTS that it's an appropriate name for them. Even the commenter above called you a "US person", the only other time I've seen that was in legislation about immigration, never as a demonym.
American doesn't refer to North America in naming animals or its people. No one from Canada or Mexico call themselves American.
king cobra - not a true cobra & snakes are largely self-organizing without monarchs
We’re more of an autonomous collective!
I like the philosophical implications of the word king in the context of king snakes. For snakes, it just means that their diet consists primarily of other snakes. This implies that to be a king is to be a predator who preys on his own subjects.
It's a real word. And used correctly in context so unlikely to be a typo.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/backronym
https://www.wordnik.com/words/backronym
Acronyms were very rare prior to about mid 20thC.
A number of words sound like they should be an acronym or people searching for an explanation of them make backronyms out of them.
Posh and rap being turned into acronyms as per the first like are good examples of a backronym.
In my town there's a shop that sells rocks and crystals etc. They also sell sand dollars for $1. That's right, there's a 1:1 conversion rate between sand dollars and USD.
Interesting. In south FL you can (or could, been a while) hit certain places and find the keyhole variant by the hundreds. Fascinating creature, all those tube feet to move. It's illegal to take them but that didn't stop shops from selling the ones that "washed up" which doesn't really happen.
But for some reason people actually buy them. It's a skeleton of a creature someone scooped up and let bake in the sun for a month. Kinda creepy!
It's quite possible, just not my experience. I've seen a lot of really neat shells and stuff wash up but not sand dollars. So i don't want to suggest people actually do that. But it's certainly easy enough. Probably why it's illegal.
I do suggest, if you get the chance, to check them out live. As i kid i had a few skeletons but seeing them in action was way cooler. It's not super exciting or anything, just kinda neat. Same as another one on that list - the horseshoe crab. I helped one get out of a shallow and it seemed appreciative.. at least as much as an ancient creature can be.
Stingrays are kinda dicks though so keep that in mind.
I once attended a traditional Chinese wedding and it's customary to serve sea cucumber soup as one of the dishes. Tales say it strengthens your fertility. Let me tell you, that shit is inedible. Soup is a euphemism, it's closer to a brine that has some penis-shaped object with gristle-like texture floating around.
It was probably the most expensive dish of the evening, but it was the only one I didn't finish.
This leads me to one of my favourite dad jokes:
What do you call a fly without wings?
A walk
Animal that does not live up to its name:
cuttlefish - is not a fish
Animal that does live up to its name:
woodpecker
I dunno, my local woodpecker attacks my aluminum downspouts every few weeks. Not the most literal of birds.
I was wondering, why it's called "vampire squid". I guess, due to this:
Animal that does not live up to its name:
Red Panda. Not Red, not a panda
Animal that lives up to its name:
Sloth
Panda bears were actually named that after the red panda, so really it's they who aren't pandas
Red Panda. Not Red, not a panda
But pretty fucking amazing with that kicking bowls onto her head while riding a unicycle thing - while listening to the world's most annoying song ever.
I was under the impression that male birds do not possess a protruding organ but indeed have a hole too, hence ‘no cock’.
didn't think i would be googling "peacock genitalia" today. anyway, you are right. i was confused because I know that ducks have penises, but as I just found out, ducks are actually an exception in the bird world. most birds just kind of rub their holes together. this is sometimes called "cloacal kiss", which is really funny.
Peacocks actually have no penis whatsoever. Be glad. You give a bird a penis and they get really into rape
i wish i didn't have to see it honestly. i saw duck rape too many times and it's horrible every time.
Peacocks have cocks. Peahens do not.
Peacocks don't have a pecker in their privates. Instead of a johnson, they have a cloaca. No willie.
The cloaca holds both the penis and the butthole on a male, and the vagina on a female. They still have penetrative sex. They're not fish. It just doesn't poke outside the body.
Can you back that up? I've spent the last 10 minutes searching up cloaca diagrams and pictures and articles and I can't find any decent information about it. Only saying that they do a cloaca kiss and transfer sperm, but then I can't find a cloaca diagram that labels any part as a penis.
I couldn't find anything specific to peacocks either, but plenty of various other birds, including chickens which have the smallest little nub of a penis to ducks and their long, twisty corkscrew cock.
cock (n.1) "male of the domestic fowl," from Old English cocc "male bird," Old French coc (12c., Modern French coq), Old Norse kokkr, all of echoic origin. Compare Albanian kokosh "cock," Greek kikkos, Sanskrit kukkuta, Malay kukuk.
cock (n.3)
"penis," 1610s, but certainly older and suggested in word-play from at least 15c.; also compare pillicock "penis," attested from early 14c.
They're called peacocks because they're peafowl who are cocks. It's a way older term than the slang usage.
AWAIL (A while ago I learned) that butterflies are named that because they like to drink the fatty cream that form atop of fresh milk that's used to make butter.
This also goes for german. The Schmetter in Schmetterling has ethymological connections to Schmalz
They don't like the fat, it was just a folk tale that they do. They were thought to steal the butter for some reason.
An older, still regionally used German name for the butterfly reflects that: Molkendieb.
Bird that does not live up to its name: tit.
Estonian edition (I'm not a native speaker): viinamäetigu. Not related to any alcohol (viin), does not live on mountains (mäe), mostly found outside of vineyards (viinamäe). At least it is a snail (tigu).
Tit does live up to its name! It's an archaic word for a small thing. https://www.etymonline.com/word/tit#etymonline_v_13361
Same name in German: Wein (wine) + Berg (mountain) = Weinberg (vinyard); Schnecke (snail) -> Weinbergschnecke.
With that logic, the common barn owl should be called the bald barn owl. The grey-crowned crane should be the bald grey-crowned crane. The harpy eagle should be the bald harpy eagle. Also, the great white shark should be the bald great white shark, mosquitos should be bald mosquitos, and amoebas should be called bald amoebas.
Im 99.9% certain that whomever named the ping pong tree sponge was high, drunk or both at the moment of inspiration 😄
The sunfish checks out, though, since it likes sunbathing.
What about a roadrunner? They do occasionally run on roads in real life, so they do live up to their name.
Ohh yeah that's fair, In my head they're dishonest about themselves because they're unlike the cartoon. my child self must've been very offended by that if I still feel that that way. can't say that i really remember though...