Talk:Suricata

Etymology: Syria??

Why should this animal be called "Syrian cat"??? It only lives in Southern Africa. --78.48.188.220 17:06, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

• Well spotted, that was a mistake – the scientific name comes form Swahili. Ƿidsiþ 17:14, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

No, the scientific does not come from Swahili, that is nonsense (even if it is in the wikipedia-article, which I am changing right now. "rock" in Swahili is mwamba or jiwe, but nothing like "suri"; a "cat" is paka. Besides: there are no suricata in the Swahili-speaking countries. The "cata/catta" is definitely a European root and I think that a Latin etymology is sensible. I just wonder about Syria so there is probably a story to go with this name choice. --78.48.188.220 18:08, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

• Well, the OED (under entry suricate) says "a[fter] French (deprecated template usage) surikate, ? of native African origin". So I imagine the scientific Latin was taken from French, whose source is apparently still unclear. The modern French spelling is suricate, and the Trésor de la langue française simply says "Mot indigène d'Afrique du Sud" (native South Afrcian language). Ƿidsiþ 19:23, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

d'Afrique du Sud is South Africa, a long way from the major Swahili regions in East Africa; the language is more likely to be Zulu, Sotho, etc. Or possibly Afrikaans. (although that wouldn't be indigène?) In Afrikaans, it is meerkat, "lake cat".

Also called zenick (Websters) for one specific Suricata tetradactyla.

I don't find any support at all for calling this animal a "Syrian cat". The references I find for Syrian cat are to Felis Syrica. I suspect that "Suricata" is a Latinization of some word (via French?), with nothing to do with the Latin for Syria. (Some of these names are quite funny; there is now a beetle (IIRC) with the specific Bah humbugi ;-) Robert Ullmann 11:47, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

Suricata is also called Rhyzaena. Robert Ullmann 11:53, 3 January 2009 (UTC)