No Matter How Bad Things May Be, They Could Be Worse...

[MajGenl.Meade]

[Econoline]

From further along on one of the sites I cited: "As far as everyday usage is concerned, however, buffalo, first recorded for the American mammal in 1635, is older than bison, first recorded in 1774."

So...how many centuries and how many hundreds of millions of users does it take before a particular usage becomes "correct"?????


ETA:

I just love these not-really-arguments of the nerds that we engage in here . . .

Me too.*


* Now I wonder just how long it'll be before someone calls me out for incorrect usage of those 2 words....

[MajGenl.Meade]

Scientifically correct you mean? It has already been acknowledged that common usage is 'buffalo' - why, when I went to Yellowstone I said to my wife, "Look - buffalo". "You mean bison?' she asked.

The USian animal remains a bison, no matter what is "popular". Popularity doesn't change genus.

Citation wars:

Spanish explorers in North America who first saw the shaggy bovine sometimes called it cibola, which was also their name for the general region where they saw it, the seven pueblos in today's northern New Mexico — isonte, said to be related to the Old Teutonic word wisand, or the Old English wesend.

French-Canadian colonists called it Bison d' Amerique. The French voyageurs (voy-uh-ZHOORS) called it boeuf — the source of the English word beef. Later in the 17th century, French explorers expanded it to bufflo, and later buffelo.

(So is it 1635 or later in the 17th century? Even this cite is confusing)


The noun buffalo apparently began to be applied to the American species in 1635, and has remained the common vernacular name ever since. Bison is more recent, dating in print from 1774. The journalists of the Corps of Discovery used buffalo exclusively — in various spellings, of course.

At present, bison and buffalo are used interchangeably. The latter name is actually incorrect; it properly denotes the water buffalo of Asia and the Cape buffalo of Africa, which belong to different genera. The name for our national icon which is accepted as correct today is American bison (with a soft s in the U.S., but pronounced bizon in Canada). The scientific name for the American bison has had an equally confusing history.

The Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778), had already listed it as Bison americanus, but that was merely the beginning. Today, the National Audubon Society's Field Guide to North American Mammals lists it as Bos bison. Bos, the generic name, is Latin for cow; bison denotes the species. Bos bison belong to the family Bovidae, consisting of large hoofed animals having hollow horns, which includes domestic cattle (Bos taurus), sheep, and goats. Bison are so closely related to Bos taurus that they can readily interbreed

. http://lewis-clark.org/content/content- ... cleID=2213

[Joe Guy]

I still have some bison nickels.

[MajGenl.Meade]

I always enjoyed Bison Springfield... Sit Down I Think I Love You

[Joe Guy]

I would have thought that you would think a bison is something you wash your fice in...

[Sue U]

I would have thought that you would think a bison is something you wash your fice in...

That's the rare Australian bison.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Bison buttons, jolly, jolly buttons,
Bison buttons, they’ll last you all the day.
When you’ve sixpence to spend
You’ll have buttons to lend,
And buttons to last you while you play!

Voiceover: Cadbury’s Chocolate Buttons – sixpence!

[Sue U]

????????

[MajGenl.Meade]

Soooooo...... real name "Ruffalo"! No chance - it's Rison!

[Econoline]

But have you ever been buffaloed by a buffalo? I have. (Unfortunately, it didn't happen in Buffalo--that would have been too perfect--but rather in Yellowstone. Oh well.)

And who (besides zoologists) ever refers to an animal by its scientific name?

[Lord Jim]

And who (besides zoologists) ever refers to an animal by its scientific name?

Anal-retentive types with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?

[BoSoxGal]

Sue, Meade & Econo, I nearly pissed myself LOLing over those last few posts!

THIS is why I come here!


Snakes are generally self-governing - bwahahahahaha!



By the way, those rare Australian bison? Not so rare: http://www.allaboutbison.com/Australia.html

(They did emigrate from America, but there are more bison in Australia than there are in Yellowstone Nat'l Park.)

[Gob]

We love our Mozzarella