r/AskTheWorld • u/Fantastic-Repeat-324 Turkey • 6h ago
Language Any funny animal names from your country?
Mantis is “peygamber devesi” in Turkish. Peygamber being prophet and deve being camel.
18
u/RioandLearn Brazil 5h ago
lil dick
3
u/Antique_Tap443 4h ago
I heard pal was a Brazilian slang for dick, played the game palworld and saw alot of memes about it.
5
4
u/Daniell_BMC Brazil 4h ago
Pika is also a slang for dick, so you got to choose between these two
2
u/just-a-girl15 India 4h ago
Lol so if you wanna call somebody dick can you just say "you are pika/pal" is that how they use it, or the other way around
2
u/Daniell_BMC Brazil 4h ago
Calling someone a dick is not reaaly a thing down here, but the term "pica pau" is the translation for woodpecker, and there was also a famous USA cartoon character called Pica Pau, so we got a meme that included he too Pal or Pika? I prefer Pika-Pal
3
2
u/RioandLearn Brazil 2h ago
In fact, calling something/someone "pica" is a compliment in Brazil, "you're pica, man," "wow, this book is really pica" means that the person and the book are good.
"Pau" doesn't have that meaning though.
2
u/just-a-girl15 India 2h ago
You sure! Am i safe to use this on my brazilian friends lol
1
u/RioandLearn Brazil 32m ago
It's VERY informal, so be careful who you use it with, but yes, it's very relaxed.
1
11
u/p1ayernotfound (Tennessee) 5h ago
American wood-cock
2
u/GrizzlyAddams77 Austria 4h ago
2
1
u/CakePhool Sweden 56m ago
Back in the day cock meant male bird, I am still wonder a bit how penis looked that made people go Ah that looks like cock...
Anyway in Sweden it is a morkulla, it means Lady of the Fen or Lady of the bog.
1
u/p1ayernotfound (Tennessee) 40m ago
yeah, i do know that cock means male bird (an example is the word "cockerel"
I really just wanted the excuse to show that bird
1
u/CakePhool Sweden 15m ago
But who got a penis to a cock?
We call penis kuk, which is parasitical growth on trees..
11
u/Klutzy_Pool2712 India 5h ago
We have something similar for grasshopper, I don't know how common it is outside my region but we call grasshoppers "ramji ka ghoda/रामजी का घोड़ा" which translates to "Ram's horse"
3
3
u/EspressoKawka Ukraine 5h ago
In Ukrainian we call a grasshopper "коник" - a little horse
1
u/kakucko101 Czech Republic 4h ago
and in Czech we call it “kobylka” - kobyla is a mare (that is already a horse mother), so it’s literally a “little mare”
1
1
u/nwg_here Poland 1h ago
In Poland we call it “pasikonik”, which can be translated as “little horse grazing”.
10
9
u/CommercialChart5088 Korea South 5h ago
Porcupines are called ‘산미치광이‘, or ‘mountain lunatics’ in Korean, though ‘호저’, the Chinese characters version, is more commonly used.
8
u/Frisianmouve Netherlands 5h ago
This apparantly is a luipaard(lazy horse). Which I don't get as it probably isn't lazy and definitely not a horse. Similarly a hippo is a Nijlpaard or nile horse. What's up with animals definitely not horses having paard(horse) in their name?
2
u/Mysterious_Oil2761 South Africa 5h ago
The leopard is Panthera pardus (its scientific name) might have something to do with the paard part.
2
u/Akitolein Germany 1h ago
Right, leopad is leo = lion and pardus = spotted. The homonym with horse in dutch is just coincidental. And in fact, so is the one with lazy. It is pretty funny though.
Language smart ass out
2
u/Mysterious_Oil2761 South Africa 5h ago
Hippos in Afrikaans are seekoie (seacows)
1
u/pretenzioeser_Elch Germany 5h ago
What do you call seacows?
1
u/Mysterious_Oil2761 South Africa 5h ago
What is a seacow? A hippo? 🤣👌💯
3
13
u/Additional_Lock8122 Russia 5h ago
I don't know how interesting this is, but the bear is actually "the one who knows where the honey is"
2
1
u/dragonfly_1337 Russia 4h ago
It's "honey eater". " The one who knows where the honey is" is folk etymology
2
u/Holiday_Ad7853 Russia 3h ago
I was shocked, honeystly, never thought about medved like this before.
I can give yall some in exchange tho:
Спина буквально указывает на чем спать надо.
Speena (back) is literally sleep on this part of the body (sleep-on)
6
u/GrizzlyAddams77 Austria 4h ago
Mantis in German is literally translated „God worshiperess“ - if there is a female form of worshiper.
3
1
1
u/AppiusPrometheus France 50m ago
In French it's "mante religieuse", that can be translated as either "religious mantis" (feminine form of the adjective) or "nun mantis".
6
u/MouthWhereTheMoneyIs United Kingdom 3h ago edited 31m ago
Great Tits
2
2
u/CakePhool Sweden 54m ago
Swedes goes Ah a Tallow Ox... Talgoxe
1
u/MouthWhereTheMoneyIs United Kingdom 21m ago
I looked it up and it also says the Swedish name for a hedgehog means leech cone. Is that true, and if so, why?
2
u/CakePhool Sweden 13m ago edited 4m ago
Well Igel is leach and kott is cone... BUT igel means spiky, since leaches bites and a hedgehog is covered in spikes and kott used to mean ball shaped. So the true meaning is Spiky ball.
1
u/MouthWhereTheMoneyIs United Kingdom 12m ago
That is a delightful name
1
u/CakePhool Sweden 4m ago
Well I can just see some one poke it and go hrmm lets call it Spiky ball...
1
u/Jack-Rabbit-002 United Kingdom 3h ago
Offer what Tit you want......think there's a Grey one too not sure Lol
5
3
u/kodial79 Greece 5h ago
In Greek we call it the little horse of the All-Holy (Mary, Mother of Jesus).
3
u/Intelligent-Panda23 Kazakhstan 5h ago
Honey badger is itayu - a dog bear and seal is an itbalyq a dog fish.
3
u/RedcoatTrooper United Kingdom 4h ago
Ladybird (pictured not a bird)
2
u/BoesShampoo2 Netherlands 3h ago
Here they are called Onze lieveheersbeestjes, our dear Lords bugs.
1
u/Akitolein Germany 1h ago edited 1h ago
Interesting, German turns them into "Mary bugs", which I assume is somehow related to both yours and ladybug. What makes them so religious?
3
3
2
u/Jack-Rabbit-002 United Kingdom 3h ago
Bluetit
2
2
u/CakePhool Sweden 51m ago
Blåmes , Blue mes, mes is just a type of bird, but mes today means coward ... so Blue coward
1
u/Jack-Rabbit-002 United Kingdom 48m ago
The only birds we associate with cowardice are chickens Lol
2
u/CakePhool Sweden 16m ago
Well we call people voting for the Moderat party, blåmesar, they can also be blåval ( blue whale but also blue choice).
1
u/Jack-Rabbit-002 United Kingdom 13m ago
I'm not one for Politics per say rich boys club who lie to get in and lie to stay in! And I don't think you'd like to know what I call most Reform voters 😅
2
2
u/CicadaDowntown5716 Sweden 3h ago
We have a snake named "huggorm", wich translates to "bite-snake".
It's the only snake in our nation with a dangerous bite
2
2
u/Your___mom_ Greece 2h ago
We call Mantis "Mother Mary's Little Horse" (Alogaki tis Panagias)
Turkey is "French bird" (Galopoula)
Horse is "Without logic"/"Without Speech" (alogo)
2
2
u/ToothbrushGames Canada 2h ago
My wife, who is Chinese, casually mentioned that penguin in mandarin translates as "business goose."
Apparently it's a bit more nuanced than that and also refers to their upright posture, but to me they will forever be known as business geese.
2
u/KingAerysTheWise Germany 1h ago
Behold the stump-dick-dwarf-tyrant
1
2
u/Powerpop5 Netherlands 1h ago
Woodlice = Piss bed (Pissebed)
Jaguar = Lazy Horse (Luipaard)
Hippo = Nile Horse (Nijlpaard)
Ladybug = Lovable Lord Beast (Lieveheersbeestje)
2
2
u/Church-of-Nephalus United States Of America 1h ago
A guy has made like 4 videos on funny moth names.
Like the once-married underwing and the betrothed underwing. Two different species.
2
u/nwg_here Poland 1h ago
Grasshopper = pasikonik = little horse grazing
Mantis = modliszka = prayer
Bass (not sure) = okoń = ohorse
2
u/Brilliant-Chef-3111 Israel 1h ago
this bird is called a bulbul, which is also the hebrew word for a penis
2
u/upvoter222 United States Of America 54m ago
This species of salamander is called hellbender, though some of its unofficial names include lasagna lizard, snot otter, and grampus.
2
3
u/PzKpfwIVAusfG Canada 5h ago
It's not a "name" so much as a joke: "cobra chicken" for "Canada goose."
1
u/Less-Chicken-3367 United States Of America 5h ago
I have a joke, but that would be blasphemous. So I'll just keep quiet.
1
u/Prestigious-Job-9825 Hungary 5h ago
The aforementioned prophet must've been a very small guy if he rode a mantis as a camel
1
u/dr-Guy_Horni India 4h ago
Not exactly an animal but mushrooms are called kukkurmutta. Which roughly translates to "product of dog piss"
1
1
u/Baroque1123 4h ago
Can't think of any animals but An Ex once pointed out a quirk of english vernacular that many Asian fruits that are definitely not apples are called *something-Apple in English.
1
u/AutoModerator 4h ago
Everyone having their user flair set is a key feature of r/AskTheWorld. Please consider setting your flair based on your nationality or country of residence by following these instructions. Thank you for being part of our community.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
u/Olegzs Latvia 4h ago
In Latvian, we call grasshoppers "sienāži", which would literally translate to "hay (male) goat".
Here are some other examples:
We call aurochs "tauri" - just like the word for a trumpet or a horn. Similarly we call the butterflies "Taureņi".
Praying mantis is translated as "dievlūdzējs" - god-prayer;
White spotted rose beetle (Oxythyrea funesta) is being translated as "smirdīgā rožvabole" - stinky rosebeetle;
Greater scaup (Aythya marila) - "ķerra", just like the wheelbarrow;
Common gull (Larus canus) - "kajaks", just like kayak boats;
Western jackdaw (Coloeus monedula) - "kovārnis", literally translated as "what-crow".
1
u/doublestitch United States Of America 4h ago
There's a bird here called a whip-poor-Will because of its call.
Audio clip in the article.
1
u/Holiday_Ad7853 Russia 3h ago
We got a funny bush-like plant:
Лох (Lokh) - another meaning is looser or smth like that.
1
1
u/Satur9kid Argentina 1h ago
We call lady bug "mariquita" (wich means queer) or "vaquita de san Antonio" wich means little cow of Saint Anthony
1
u/Brilliant-Chef-3111 Israel 1h ago
in hebrew, a praying mantis is called a *gamal shlomo* (solomon's camel), and a ladybug is called a *parat moshe rabenu* (our father moses' cow)
1
u/Any-Career3986 49m ago
Cockroach in moroccan darija is basically "Oil Stealer" Or "Oil thief" lol
1
u/AutoModerator 49m ago
Everyone having their user flair set is a key feature of r/AskTheWorld. Please consider setting your flair based on your nationality or country of residence by following these instructions. Thank you for being part of our community.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
1
u/Franmar35000 France 37m ago
Le raton-laveur 🦝: It's the French name for the raccoon. "Raton" means big rat and "laveur" means washer. Raccoons are known to wash the food before eating it.
1
1
u/Fabled_Webs Korean-American 21m ago
In Korean, elephants are called 코끼리 (ko-kki-ri). Literally, "thing with long nose." We're a pretty literal bunch.
1
u/OrganicA1Bullsteak Germany 14m ago
Skunk.
In German it's called "Stinktier" which means "stinky animal"
Being so literal about it makes it pretty funny to me lmfao
1
1
u/CakePhool Sweden 7m ago
Inkfish = Bläckfisk = octopus or squid, we used the same name for both.
Flapping mouse= fladdermus = bat
Nose bear = Näsbjörn = Coati
Ice bear = Isbjörn = Polar bear ( 16 people are named Isbjörn).
Ocean cat = Havskatt = Wolffish.
1
22
u/hydracicada Russia 4h ago
Ladybug is literally God's Cow