Chrysti The Wordsmith: Animal Verbs - 2

Greetings verb of yours last time on Kristi the wordsmith we explored the words ape Badger dog and hawg in their capacity as verbs. You can ape or mockingly mimic someone badger or pester somebody and dog someone's footsteps. Today we'll examine the unique charms of goose bug and duck and how they fit into the lineup of animal verbs to goose someone is to jab or poke him in certain private places as domestic geese will often do to humans. There are bills being at the proper height. Similarly when we goose a car engine we jab the accelerator like a goose poking at the fundaments of a surprise to human being. Bug is the generic English term for any insect especially the ones we swat away when they swarm cling and sting when someone annoys or be devils us. We enlist the insect word to give the command. Don't bog me bug has been an American English verb since the 1950s when we crouched low to say avoid being seen. We act like the

diving waterfall we duck duck derives from an old German term meaning to dive which of course is what these birds do for a living. The noun doc was first sighted in the nine hundreds. While the verb meaning to plunge or bend has been in the language since the thirteen hundreds. From the studios at K G L T F M on the campus of Montana State University this is Christie the wordsmith website for this series is wordsmith radio dot org. CHRISTIE The wordsmith is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises a high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry. Zoot web dot com.