Talpicide, v.: The killing or taking of moles or woants.
The sole example for canicide: 1852 WILLIS Sum. Cruise Medit. xli. 248 The dead dog is hung by his heels..and the canicide is compelled to heap wheat about him.
Wobbegong: A brown carpet shark with buff markings.
1937 Z. GREY Amer. Angler in Austral. vi. 53 The most remarkable feature of the wobbegong is his teeth. 1956 S. HOPE Diggers' Paradise xx. 183 The worst types are the white pointer,..hammerhead and carpet shark, also called the wobbegong. 1981 B. STONEHOUSE Sharks iv. 46 Woggegongs..add to their camouflage by growing fronds that look like seaweed on their faces.
The sole example for canicide: 1852 WILLIS Sum. Cruise Medit. xli. 248 The dead dog is hung by his heels..and the canicide is compelled to heap wheat about him.
Wobbegong: A brown carpet shark with buff markings.
1937 Z. GREY Amer. Angler in Austral. vi. 53 The most remarkable feature of the wobbegong is his teeth. 1956 S. HOPE Diggers' Paradise xx. 183 The worst types are the white pointer,..hammerhead and carpet shark, also called the wobbegong. 1981 B. STONEHOUSE Sharks iv. 46 Woggegongs..add to their camouflage by growing fronds that look like seaweed on their faces.
I'm amazed that canicide, the noun, refers in this example to the perpetrator and not the act!
I aspire to the title of Talpicide. I am a talpicide, who has committed many acts of talpicide. I will leave it to your fevered imagination to guess whether i have killed or merely taken your woants. Ransom may be involved!
Ginny -one of my students with autism loves both animals and the alphabet. he is nearly 18, and so I want to develop his language skills in the context of a functional (vocational OR recreational)spirit. So, I have made an a-z filing cabinet for him and printed out images of animals with names beginning a-z. His job is to file the animals in their appropriate alphabetic folder, then describe each animal, creating an encylopedia of sorts. Anyway, the animal printouts I am using (which pair a picture, often unflattering, with a bold-type species name and a smaller bold type nickname and then a lengthy regular-type species description) are HILARIOUS.
for example, the picture of CHINCHILLA is subtitled A NARROW ESCAPE and accompanied by several paragraphs of dramatic language describing the chinchilla's desperate battle with the fur industry. You should read it. I have it.
I also have "CAPYBARA: PEACEFUL FATHER OF THE RIVERBANKS";
"COLLARED ANTEATER: VALUABLE CLAWS!"; "COCK OF THE ROCK: TAKE YOUR PLACE FOR THE DANCE";and GIANT ANTEATER:AN ANT DETECTIVE WITH A SHARP NOSE!"
The species' nicknames are funny and strangely worded, and the lengthy expositions are even more funny and more strangely worded!
love,
J