2692: Why Historical Animal-Names are So Imprecise | May 4, 2024

Carrying on the question of how Old English had its own for hyena, an animal that lives in central, Sub-Saharan Africa, that was by no means a rare example of a word for animals and plants in particular that got recycled from something else. Indeed, historically animals and plants are often very difficult to define, and whatever existed beyond one’s local area was basically as good as myth. Take the Old English 'olfend' meaning 'camel', an animal also unfamiliar to the Anglo-Saxons, but this word comes indirectly from the Latin 'elephantus' (elephant), though Old English did also have the word 'elpend' or 'ylpend' for an elephant. Again, it is likely these people would not have a clear idea what these animals looked like, but knew from Biblical stories or other tales of these beasts from the east.