One of the few features of Old English poetry to have been embraced by the Internet is the kenning. We internauts tend to use them mostly for animals: “trash panda” for raccoon; “nope rope” for snake; “giraffe sheep” for a llama. My favorite has always been the vulgar one, in which we call the skunk a “fart squirrel”.

I can guess what the Anglo-Saxons would have called this skunk.Yesterday my wife asked me where the word “skunk” comes from, and hypothesized that it might be from a Native American language. Off to the Oxford English Dictionary I went to find out, and she was correct. But also…

“Etymology: < an unattested Southern New England Algonquian cognate of Western Abenaki segôgw, Unami Delaware šká:kw, Meskwaki shekâkwa, apparently < the Algonquian base of Meskwaki shek- to urinate + the Algonquian base of Meskwaki wâkw- fox.”

OMG! The Internet was reproducing the Algonquian attitude almost perfectly.