The word zodiac comes to English in the late 14th century through the Old French word zodiaque, which came from Latin zodiacus, which came from the Greek word zodiakos. The Greek word zodiakos literally means "circle of little animals,” having as its root the Greek word zoion, which means "animal.” The word zodiac reflects the prominence of animals (including mythological animals) among the twelve signs. ???

If you’ve made a serious faux pas and need to acknowledge it with humility, you might be said to be “eating crow” or “eating humble pie,” both phrases of which involve animals — or do they? In this episode, I uncover the dirty little secret underneath the pastry dough in “to eat humble pie” but demonstrate why you still want to eat humble pie (or dirt) instead of crows. 

Coccyx is a small triangle-shaped bone at the base of the spinal column in humans and other apes, such as gibbons, orangutans, gorillas, and chimpanzees. Representing a vestigial tail and most commonly called the tailbone, coccyx was the name given to this part of our anatomy by ancient Greek physician Galen because of its resemblance to an animal, making the word an “animalogy.” Can you guess the etymology? All is revealed in this episode of Animalogy, a podcast about language and the animal-related words and expressions we use every day.

English is a remarkable language. It's an incredibly flexible, rich, diverse, beautifully fluid language that’s been influenced by many other languages. It's amazing for its resilience and steadfastness and diversity. Today, because it has borrowed more freely than any other tongue, it boasts the largest vocabulary of all languages with 1,000,000 words recorded. Of course, none of use even close to that many words in our daily lives or throughout our lifetimes, but how nice to have so many to choose from. 

Throughout the episodes of Animalogy, I’ll be talking about the Proto-Indo-European reconstructed language, the related Indo-European languages, Old English (or Anglo-Saxon), the Norman invasion, Latin, Greek, and different types of sound changes that have occurred in English. In order to provide some context for what might be unfamiliar bits of history or linguistics, I’m offering this brief overview of this remarkable language called English.

Semantics play a significant role in shaping public perception about animals and animal welfare. The meat, dairy, and egg industries go to great lengths to remove harsh terminology and replace it with euphemisms that conceal the truth and sanitize violence. In today’s episode, I talk to someone who knows this all too well: Paul Shapiro, Vice President of Policy at The Humane Society of the United States. Join us as we discuss euphemisms and doublespeak used by animal agriculture and the best terms for plant-based and cultured meat.