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Jul 26, 2026 This week’s theme Words with hidden animals This week’s words auspicate ettercap expiscate bellwether echinate How popular are they? Relative usage over time AWADmail archives Index Next week’s theme Misleading words Wordsmith Games 🧩 Jigsaw Riddle Washing Ritual 🌍 Langitude Trace gasconade home AWADmail Issue 1256 A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day and Other Tidbits about Words and Language From: Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) Subject: Interesting stories from the Net Which Is the Oldest English Accent? BBC Permalink Learning Another Language Appears to Slow Brain Ageing, Scientists Say The Guardian Permalink From: Steven Price (sdprice510 mac.com) Subject: Today’s quote and another very much like it A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: “To be able to say how much you love is to love but little.” -Petrarch, scholar and poet (20 Jul 1304-1374) It brought to mind: “There’s beggary in the love that can be reckoned.” -Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act 1, scene 1 Steve Price, New York, New York From: Glenn Glazer (glenn.glazer gmail.com) Subject: ettercap I can think of two other uses of ettercap: the human spider hybrid in Dungeons & Dragons, first published in the 1981 Fiend Folio for the game’s first edition, and the network-security tool Ettercap. The software’s name is a double nod to the D&D monster and “Ethernet capture”. The monster’s name may, in turn, have been inspired by Bilbo’s use of attercop for the Mirkwood spiders in The Hobbit Glenn Glazer, Felton, California From: Peter Jennings (peterj benlo.com) Subject: Expiscate We are fortunate to spend our summers on Stoney Lake in Canada. Since 2022, scientists from Trent University and Fisheries and Oceans Canada have been implanting transmitters in fish and monitoring their movements around the lake. Their effort to expiscate what millions of data points reveal should help them better understand the lake’s ecology and the potential effects of climate change on fish populations. What an appropriate word for their work! Peter Jennings, Stoney Lake, Canada From: Henry M. Willis (hmw ssdslaw.com) Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--bellwether Your discussion of bellwether reminds me of the beginning of Act III of Tosca, as Cavaradossi awaits execution. It is daybreak, and, after an orchestral introduction, we hear a shepherd boy singing in Romanesco. We know he is a shepherd because his song is accompanied by the bells of his flock. Puccini includes a stage direction to make sure we do not miss the detail: Si odono, lontane, le campanelle d’un armento: di mano in mano vanno sempre più affievolendosi. (“The bells of a herd can be heard in the distance; little by little, they grow fainter.”) You can hear the bells just before the shepherd boy begins his song here (video, 3 min.). More stage directions specifying how the bells should sound, along with a longer clip of a live performance, are available here. Henry Willis, Los Angeles, California From: Jay Florey (JayFlorey57 comcast.net) Subject: Expiscate When I saw this week’s theme and the first word, before reading the full explanation, I thought the week would feature words with animal names hidden in them. I’m pleased to report that I was right about two of them: auspicate and expiscate both contain cat. Jay Florey, Olympia, Washington From: Alan Butler (alan-brook-side hotmail.com) Subject: Echinate I thought this would make a lovely descriptive verb. For example: “As the discussion became even more heated, I could see him echinating bit by bit until he was so prickly as to be untouchable.” Alan Butler, Málaga, Spain From: Ellen Ziegler (ellen ellenziegler.com) Subject: Echinate Echinacea is a genus of beautiful perennials commonly called coneflowers. Its name and echinate share the Greek word for hedgehog, a reference to the flowers’ prickly central cones. Ellen Ziegler, Seattle, Washington From: Bob Carleton (bobNgayle proton.me) Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--echinate Even more amazing than the hedgehog is the echidna, an egg-laying mammal native to Australia and New Guinea. Echidnas and the platypus are the only living monotremes, which makes them pretty special. Bob Carleton, Albuquerque, New Mexico Several readers mentioned the echidna. An echidna is certainly echinate, but the words are unrelated. Echinate ultimately comes from Greek ekhinos (hedgehog or sea urchin), while echidna comes from Greek ekhidna (viper), also the name of a half-woman, half-snake monster in Greek mythology. -Anu Garg From: Eunice Walker (eunicewalker mac.com) Subject: Hedgehogs Speaking of hedgehogs, here is Philip Larkin’s The Mower, which contains some of my favourite lines. Eunice Walker, Chesterfield, UK Email of the Week -- Brought to you by Oneupmanship From: Tamar H. Small (tsmall letsci.org) Subject: A Thought for Today: Amelia Earhart A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: So, I accept these awards on behalf of the cake bakers and all of those other women who can do some things quite as important, if not more important, than flying, as well as in the name of women flying today. -Amelia Earhart (24 Jul 1897-1937) Thank you especially for today’s quotation. Here is a photo of my grandfather, my uncle Aaron, and the other men on their cake-baking team at the Lawndale bakery. Uncle Aaron is decorating a wedding cake. During the Depression and throughout WWII, they fed hungry neighbors who came to the back door asking for bread. During the Great Flood of 1937, the same year Amelia Earhart disappeared, my grandfather filled suitcases with bread, bagels, and rolls, then rowed through Louisville’s floodwaters to feed desperate people stranded on the roofs of their homes. He was also searching for his brother, whom he found. These bakers, too, would have appreciated Amelia Earhart’s tribute. How did she know that cake bakers, women and men alike, can be heroes? Tamar H. Small, Annandale, New Jersey From: Gary P. Brown (revnor aol.com) Subject: Union Theological Seminary USAGE: “Joseph C. Hough Jr., president of Union Theological Seminary in New York, has been raising this echinate question in recent months. In speeches and in widely disseminated interviews with The New York Times and National Public Radio, Hough has suggested that Christians adopt a different way of viewing other faiths. He says that simply tolerating other faiths is ‘not sufficient in a world of religious pluralism’.” Bill Tammeus; Holy Land; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Wisconsin); Mar 31, 2002. As a 1969 graduate of Union Theological Seminary in Manhattan, I was pleased to see a quotation from Joseph C. Hough Jr., who was then Union’s president. Founded in 1836, Union is the nation’s oldest independent seminary. It continues to raise echinate questions and to remind us, at a time of rampant nationalist and fundamentalist Christianity, that robust, democratic, and pluralistic alternatives remain open to people of many faiths and of none. Gary P. Brown, Hammondsport, New York From: Alex McCrae (ajmccrae277 gmail.com) Subject: ettercap and echinate Ettercap, in its sense of an ill-tempered or spiteful person, brought Trump to mind. At White House news conferences, he has repeatedly lashed out at reporters, including CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. When he complained that she never smiled, she had been asking about Jeffrey Epstein’s victims and the release of the Epstein files, hardly a subject that called for a smile. Echinate brought to mind the echidna, native to Australia and New Guinea. Echidnas, together with the platypus, are the only living egg-laying mammals. Their spines are modified hairs made of keratin, and their long, sticky tongues make quick work of ants and termites. Studies have found REM-like features in echidna sleep, though whether echidnas dream is anyone’s guess. Bon appetit! Alex McCrae, Van Nuys, California Anagrams This week’s theme: Words with hidden animals Auspicate Ettercap Expiscate Bellwether Echinate = A “Launch meet” Waspish, shrewish Lie between elicited & extracted That woke pacesetter man Hispid -Shyamal Mukherji, Mumbai, India (mukherjis hotmail.com) = Initiate w/ awe (hawk) Then we met the Spider! To exact (Pisces) The lead (calm sheep) Bristled (sea urchin) -Dharam Khalsa, Burlington, North Carolina (dharamkk2 gmail.com) Words with hidden animals Auspicate Ettercap Expiscate Bellwether Echinate = Launch A damn spider We elicit, extract it Be a leader who set the pace With spines -Julian Lofts, Auckland, New Zealand (jalofts xtra.co.nz) Make your own anagrams and animations. Limericks Auspicate Our ship we will auspicate now; A bottle we’ll smash on the bow. We’ll use some champagne, So luck we will gain -- Though can you explain to me how? -Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com) “With great bombings a war I will auspicate; Never mind that our allies I nauseate,” Said Donald. “My whim Is to go there and swim, So the Strait of Hormuz we will chlorinate.” -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) ettercap In the ettercap’s web can be found Many bugs who are sticking around. There is no better way Of entrapping one’s prey! It’s for this that the spider’s renowned. -Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com) Said the bankrupt and fraudulent ettercap, “Pay my bills? I’m the world’s biggest debtor, sap! But I’ve posted all night Of our nation’s great might, So as drones hit our ships, I had better nap.” -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) expiscate Some fingerprints cops sorely need To expiscate who did this deed. Once given that clue, They know what to do -- At least in the novels I read. -Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com) “His crimes there was no need to expiscate, For he’d do them and publicly celebrate,” Said Jack Smith. “I’m immune,” Agreed Donald; “Each noon, On the laws of our nation I defecate.” -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) bellwether A bellwether leading the way Is Amazon, some people say. If this firm’s doing well, It’s a sign things are swell -- The economists then shout, “Hooray!” -Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com) Do you think Silly Sarah’s uncool? Well, let me tell you, she’s no fool! Those weird clothes that she sports Are bellwethers of sorts, Soon seen on the most chic at school! -Bindy Bitterman, Chicago, Illinois (bindy eurekaevanston.com) If glaciers are any bellwether, Humanity’s on a short tether. As our planet we bake, I will tell you my take: With T-Rex we’re birds of a feather. -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) echinate The echinate creature came near, Which prompted a worried “Oh, dear. Since one of its skills Is to sting with its quills, I’m getting the heck outta here!” -Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com) Eww, I have got myself stuck On some echinate thing in that muck! I didn’t see it, But it saw me and bit! Oh boy, don’t I have the worst luck! -Bindy Bitterman, Chicago, Illinois (bindy eurekaevanston.com) “How do hedgehogs make love?” queried Fred. “Very carefully.” So it is said. With their coats echinate, It is quite hard to mate. There’s no fun when they go off to bed. -Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com) Said the porcupine, “Anu, I’ll demonstrate What you mean by the adjective ‘echinate’. See, I’ve raised up my quills; This gives predators chills! It’s behavior that sea urchins emulate.” -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) Puns “Mommy, why do you keep writing out 3.14159?” “Bec-auspicate is sacred to us mathematicians.” -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) “This war is getting boring. We’d b-ettercap-itulate to Iran so I can focus on my ballroom,” said Donald. -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) “I hate seeing my expiscate off. Why can’t she leave Hepburn and me alone?” complained Spencer Tracy. -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) “Muhammad was a M-echinate-ive,” explained the holy city tour guide. -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) “You have to come down to dinner, Bellwether you like it or not!” thundered the Beast. -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) “Don’t ring it? Jesus will protect the Liberty Bellwether or not you scientists think it will crack,” said the early Christian Nationalists. (180 years later: “It was vandalized by Communist radicals. I’ll get my Reflecting Pool guy to fix it,” said Donald.) -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: The propagandist’s purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human. -Aldous Huxley, novelist (26 Jul 1894-1963)

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