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Chris -- 2018-04-11
Chapter VI of Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll, contains this exchange between Alice and Humpty Dumpty:
‘Don’t stand chattering to yourself like that,’ Humpty Dumpty said, looking at her for the first time, `but tell me your name and your business.’
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‘My name is Alice, but—’
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‘It’s a stupid name enough!’ Humpty Dumpty interrupted impatiently. ‘What does it mean?’
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‘Must a name mean something?’ Alice asked doubtfully.
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‘Of course it must,’ Humpty Dumpty said with a short laugh: ‘my name means the shape I am—and a good handsome shape it is, too. With a name like yours, you might be any shape, almost.’
That someone’s name might make them any shape at all does not deter efforts to bend them into recognizable form. We’ve seen recently reconstructions of the evidently suggestive names Fallot and Van Dieman.
DeKay’s Brown Snake (Storeria dekayi) is very common in the United States, vying in abundance with the garter snake. Named after the 19th c. naturalist James Edward DeKay, it is a harmless snake that lives on small invertebrates; slugs are a favourite. Among the defensive ploys it uses to ward off predators is the emission of foul-smelling compounds when threatened, which led to the idea that these were “decay snakes”.
child eggcorns
Which was why I did a doubletake when he explained the nomenclature of a small, brown snake, a species he often unearths in our yard, to his friends. “They call him a decay snake because when you get him out of the ground, he smells like something decaying.â€
(http://www.brainchildmag.com/department … er2008.asp)
Snake ID forum
That’s actually a Decay’s snake, or Brown snake. Non-venomous, won’t grow to more than 14-16 inches. Nice find!
(http://www.flickr.com/groups/25998032@N … uss/41236/)
Hunting board
Did you smell your fingers after you let it go?
All I smell is paint! I had dozens of Decay snakes, they really stink!
(http://www.newjerseyhunter.com/article60772.htm)
See also gardener snakes and guarder snakes on this forum.
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