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The red and white giant flying squirrel lives up to its name, as it can reach a length of over a meter
(lemmy.world)
this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2025
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For a lot of languages, lots of names are just "descriptions". Like Finnish, German — and I assume — Japanese.
Like capybara is a "water pig" in at least Finnish and German. And English usually just takes loanwords it doesn't understand, and thus English speakers don't think of as descriptors. "Capybara" is originally from Tupi language (spoken by indigenous Brazilians) capiuára , from capĩ ‘grass’ + uára ‘eater’.
Although the names aren't always accurate. Like guinea pigs aren't from Guinea. (And neither are they related to pigs, really.)
"Schwein" (=pig) was used much in the same way "deer" once was in terms of animals and "apple" was in terms of fruit. A general term. Oranges are still etymologically "Chinese apples" in Northern Europe/Nordics; variations of "appelsin" ~applechina.
Languages are fun, aren't they?