Animals, Insects, & Birds Slang, Jargon, and New Words from Double-Tongued Dictionary

Citations in the Category Animals, Insects, & Birds

Non-plant life forms other than humans: wildlife, domesticated creatures, insects, fish, shellfish, mammals, birds, pets, etc. You can also see entries assigned to this category.

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alpha roll n. During Cole’s testimony, Jones” attorney, Jack O’Hale, showed a video of a Baltimore police canine officer performing a technique called an “alpha roll.” The video shows the officer slamming a police dog on its back and then straddling it, and staring the dog in the eye. The intent is for the dog to realize that the officer is the boss. [English Animals, Insects, & Birds Jargon] [full cite] (May. 5, 2008)

animal enrichment n. At one point in the afternoon, an Oakland Zoo employee tossed two boxes covered in camel hair and filled with meat cutlets into the tiger pit, a process called “animal enrichment” that simulates prey. The two tigers, whose names the zoo keeps private to prevent people from taunting them, quickly began tearing the meat from the boxes. [English Animals, Insects, & Birds Euphemism Jargon] [full cite] (Dec. 31, 2007)

animal hoarder n. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) of Texas says it is taking temporary custody of more than 200 confined dogs from a suspected animal hoarder in Wise County who is also an animal control officer. [English Animals, Insects, & Birds] [full cite] (Aug. 16, 2006)

anthropodenial n. With respect to inference, if humans share a trait, such as empathy, with some other animal, then the rejection of that possibility constitutes a type I error, or what primatologist Frans de Waal at Emory University refers to as anthropodenial. At the other end of the spectrum lies the type II error of anthropomorphism, the belief that humans share some trait with another animal when they actually do not. At the other end of the spectrum lies the type II error of anthropomorphism, the belief that humans share some trait with another animal when they actually do not. [English Animals, Insects, & Birds Science] [full cite] (Oct. 15, 2006)

anthropornography n. Adams coins the term “anthropornography”: “the depiction of nonhuman animals as whores”…. We have all seen anthropornographic ads, but for most of us, we didn’t register what we were looking at. A cartoon with a cow standing like a sexy lady; a pig drawn with lipstick and a voluptuous rump; a chicken lifting her miniskirt to reveal her tasty feminine legs. [English Animals, Insects, & Birds Sex & Sexuality New or Nonce] [full cite] (Aug. 5, 2006)

anting n. The behavior you witnessed, Mona, is called “anting.” I know it seems like it should be called “mothballing,” but anting is much easier to say. Plus, more often than not, birds rub their feathers with ants.…Over 250 different species of birds have been observed rubbing live ants over their feathers.… Birds have also been known to use over 40 other items to rub over their feathers. The list includes beetles, millipedes, lemons, walnuts, cigarette butts, and in some fashionable cities, Old Spice. [English Animals, Insects, & Birds] [full cite] (Aug. 11, 2006)

ATM machine n. Targeting immigrants is not unique to Oakland. Last month Richmond police were called to investigate the fatal robbery of an El Salvadoran immigrant. The city’s street thugs sometimes refer to Latino and Asian laborers as “ATM machines.” [English Animals, Insects, & Birds Slang] [full cite] (Feb. 14, 2007)

bait bucket biologist n. While pike have not been stocked extensively in Colorado waters since the early 1980s, some fish have escaped, or been “planted” illegally by “bait bucket biologists” in other Colorado waters where they were not intended to be, sometimes repeatedly. [English Animals, Insects, & Birds Biology Environment] [full cite] (Sep. 1, 2006)

BARF n. Some owners take that to mean bones and raw food, better known as the B.A.R.F. diet. But vets who approve are difficult to find—especially if they’ve saved dogs from intestinal obstruction, perforation and peritonitis caused by splintered bone. [English Animals, Insects, & Birds Food & Drink Acronym] [full cite] (Jun. 1, 2007)

bark mitzvah n. Next channel. Talk show host Joan Rivers appears. It’s her dog Spike’s 13th birthday, his “bark mitzvah.” Rivers promises, “We’re going to have a gala celebration with lots of four-legged friends and their celebrity owners.” [English Animals, Insects, & Birds Religion] [full cite] (Dec. 21, 2004)

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