From: cgw at fnal.gov (Charles G Waldman)
Date: Tue, 11 May 1999 15:35:14 GMT
Subject: Python T-shirt [OFFTOPIC]
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X-UID: 1852                                                 

Ivan Van Laningham writes:
 > 
 > I'd like to correct a small error perpetrated by the movie.  The
 > bunny that lops off arms etc. is at one point described as a
 > ``rodent.''  In point of fact, rabbits are lagomorphs, _not_
 > rodents.

This mailing list is so educational, I learn something here every day,
and often it has nothing to do with computers.  Your posting sent me
off to my Webster's to look up "lagomorph" and "rodent" to see what
the difference is.  Here's the Webster's entry for "rodent":


 Main Entry: ro?dent
 Function: noun
 Etymology: ultimately from Latin rodent-, rodens, present participle
 of rodere to gnaw; akin to Latin radere to scrape, scratch, Sanskrit
 radati he gnaws 
 Date: 1859 
 1 : any of an order (Rodentia) of relatively small gnawing mammals
  (as a mouse, a squirrel, or a beaver) that have in both jaws a single
  pair of incisors with a chisel-shaped edge 
 2 : a small mammal (as a rabbit or a shrew) other than a true rodent


So at least according to Webster's sense 2, it's legitimate to call a
rabbit a rodent, even though it's not a "true" rodent.  Gnaw on that!

didactically yours,
	     cgw





