660: hyena: Cat or Dog? Sep 28, 2016

Language can be a wonderful tool for answering mysteries and other confusion. Certainly, knowing French or German, or better yet, Latin and Old English, would help to break down words and understand their meanings, but that skill comes in handy outside of just vocabulary. Hyenas look odd, with some cat-like features and some dog-like ones as well. The first place that might help to determine how it is classified would be to look at its scientific name, Hyaena: a genus comprised of 3 species. Since that is neither Canis nor Felis, this is not useful. The etymology would be another place to look, as sometimes, such as with 'ocelot' meaning 'field tiger' in Nahuatl, that can be indicative of classification. Unfortunately in this case, 'hyena' comes from the Greek 'huaina' (from 'hus') meaning 'pig' in reference to its bristly hair, only complicating the matter. In truth, hyenas are neither canines nor felines, although they are closer related to felines.