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PageTheFirst
 I am surprised to learn (upon googling "Moby Dick" in search of complete on-line texts) that there exist editions of this novel which do not include the Etymology and Extracts, without which prelude it seems unthinkable that anyone would ever understand the novel properly. --ineffabilliken I wonder when people lost the gift of good naming- it might be Linneaus' fault, who knows. Anyway there's something so beautiful about the name of a thing evoking something about it, for instanve the "Hval" from vaulted, evoking the mighty whale-fish rolling in the sea and heaving his great round bulk upon the water. Or one of my favourites is the latin root for the goat family gives us the words "caper" and "capricious". But alas, now we name things like "little brown bat" and "downy woodpecker", as distinguished from the "hairy woodpecker." Boooring. -Sarah
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