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Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475 |
But possum is a variant. Dropped the 'o'. Still no understand.
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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OP
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
World net gives it the other way around, saying 'possum' is the animal found in the western hemisphere, and the opossum, that in the Oceana. To cross a couple of threads, it gives 'dissemble' as a synomym for possum (and does not insist on 'to play..') But I'm with Max, anyway, 11 Oscars, and all. What the hell. Now, how did this thread get from animated spinach to (seemingly) inanimate marsupials?
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Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230 |
>World net gives it the other way around, saying 'possum' is the animal found in the western hemisphere, and the opossum, that in the Oceana. That's the way I was taught it, too, but I figured a USn encyclopedia would get it right.
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636 |
Now, how did this thread get from animated spinach to (seemingly) inanimate marsupials?Yeah, weird isn't it, how we sometimes meander around here
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
blame Capt. Cook (1777) for naming the thing as he saw it. possum is the aphetic form, first seen in the U.S. around 1613, some scant years after opossum first appears in the literature (1610).
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
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But was Capt. Cook familiar enough with the appearance of the N. American beastie, and so able to name the Australian beastie after it?
Bingley
Bingley
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
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It would be doubtful if Cook knew his ass from his elbow when it came to animals apart from sailors, and perhaps women although he had the rep of being something of a puritan. Who would have known about the Yank version of the beast would have been Joseph Banks, his naturalist. That guy was one bright, well-informed and talented cookie ...
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