+454 You wonder how animals got their names. Dog? I can understand that. Cat? Sure. Hippopotamus? Yea...wait what?! amirite?

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Fun fact: Hippopotamus means "riverhorse".

by Anonymous 14 years ago

I could mention something about roots words from Greek and Latin, but I feel it would be wasted.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Being a Latin/Ancient Greek nerd, I find hippopotamus to make much more sense than cat or dog.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

But dog is not even close to Kanine and cat isn't close to feline. And as someone said, hippopotamus means 'river horse.' Your post is a load of FAIL.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Hippopotamus makes the most sense. It means river horse. Cat and dog aren't short for anything and they don't even sound like their scientific names. I guess the post is right that where some names from make no sense, but I'd trade the hippo with cat and dog.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

in ancient egypt, a cat was called a "miu". onomatopoeia ftw.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

I don't want to know how the dik dik got it's name.

by Anonymous 14 years ago