Klarinet Archive - Posting 001100.txt from 1999/12

From: klara <klahall@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Zoology
Date: Fri, 31 Dec 1999 13:15:58 -0500

still more off list topic, but in the interests of education...(vbg)(very
big grin)

'Possums in southern US are rodent-faced, size of housecat or more, have
hairless tails and hand-like front paws. They are pests, foraging in
garbage cans,etc. The expressions "to play possum" derives from the fact
that sometimes when startled they will pretend to be dead. At least when
young, the tails are prehensile. Mostly nocturnal.
this is from observation and discussion with a friend who did wildlife
rehabilitation
and had a couple of batches of possum young to raise.
annhall
On Thu, 30 Dec 1999 20:03:25 -0600 "Dee D. Hays" <deehays@-----.com>
writes:
>------@-----.EE640160
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
>
>The following is from the Microsoft Bookshelf packaged with Office 97
>=
>Professional Edition. The word opossum is of North American Indian =
>origin and the formal or full version of the word is opossum here in
>the =
>US. Now if other countries have adopted our short form for the formal
>=
>version and vice versa, it just goes to show what a weird and
>wonderful =
>language English is.
>
>
>pos=B7sum (p=F2s=B9em) noun
>
>Chiefly Southern U.S.
>
>An opossum.
>
>
>[Short for opossum.]
>
>
>Regional Note: Since English is a language that stresses some
>syllables =
>and not others, weakly stressed syllables, especially those preceding
>=
>strong stresses, are dropped at times. This process, called aphesis
>when =
>it occurs at the beginning of a word, is more common in regional =
>American dialects than in the more conservative Standard English,
>which =
>tends to retain in pronunciation anything reflected in spelling. =
>Although many American dialects feature aphesis, it is most famous in
>=
>the dialects of the South, where it yields pronunciations such as
>count =
>of for (on) account of, tater for potato, possum for opossum, and =
>skeeter for mosquito.
>
>
>o=B7pos=B7sum (e-p=F2s=B9em, p=F2s=B9em) noun
>
>plural opossum or o=B7pos=B7sums
>
>1. Any of various nocturnal, usually arboreal marsupials of the family
>=
>Didelphidae, especially Didelphis marsupialis of the Western
>Hemisphere, =
>having a thick coat of hair, a long snout, and a long prehensile tail.
>=
>See Regional Note at possum.
>
>2. Any of several similar marsupials of Australia belonging to the =
>family Phalangeridae.
>
>
>[Virginia Algonquian.]
>
>
>Word History: The word opossum takes us back to the earliest days of
>the =
>United States. The settlement of Jamestown, Virginia, was founded in =
>1607 by the London Company, chartered for the planting of colonies.
>Even =
>though the first years were difficult, promotional literature was =
>glowing. In one such piece, A True Declaration of the Estate of the =
>Colonie in Virginia, published in 1610, we find this passage: "There
>are =
>. . . Apossouns, in shape like to pigges." This is the first recorded
>=
>use of opossum, although in a spelling that differs from the one later
>=
>settled on to reproduce the sound of the Virginia Algonquian word from
>=
>which our word came. The word opossum and its shortened form possum, =
>first recorded in 1613 in more promotional literature, remind us of a
>=
>time when the New World was still very new, settlers were few, and the
>=
>inhabitants for whom the New World was not new were plentiful.
>
>
>
>
>------@-----.EE640160--
>

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