anatine

If the Museum of English Rural Life had to look up anatine, then I suppose there’s no shame in admitting that I did not know it, either.

Looking around, the most comprehensive list of animal adjectives is on Dave Koelle’s site. I think I’ve come across less than a third of those words in the wild. My particular favorites are ostracine, fulicine and hirudine, each of which would make lovely, if incomprehensible, insults.

Thanks,
-Ed.

2 Responses to “anatine”

  1. Jed

    I could have sworn that I had written about animal -ine adjectives here at some point, but I can’t find any evidence of having done so. Thank you for doing it!

    🙂 on ostracine, fulicine, and hirudine.

    I’ve long been fond of hyracine, even though I barely know what a hyrax is, and of murine for no particular reason.

    I’m amused to learn that if one doesn’t want to use struthious for some reason, one can resort to struthionine.

    Oh, and I’m also amused to see that there’s a word that rhymes with anatine: manatine, the adjective for manatees.

    reply
    • -Ed.

      I also assumed you had written about them and tried to find it to link to. Maybe it’s around here somewhere and we just haven’t found the right search terms.

      Thanks,
      -E.

      reply

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