europe

Platypus

30 April 2014
maps
etymology, europe, languages

Platypus 30 April 2014 This map shows European languages grouped by the etymology of their word for the platypus. This particular map shows several trends. The United Kingdom was the first European nation to discover the platypus, around 1800. As zoologists across the continent became more aware of this curious animal, an interesting combination of political and linguistic factors began to affect its nomenclature. As expected, Romance languages tended to use the Latinized Greek term Ornithorhynchus, meaning “bird snout”. ...