Re: USAGE: names for pillbug/wood louse/woodbug
From: | John Cowan <cowan@...> |
Date: | Thursday, March 11, 2004, 14:44 |
Joe scripsit:
> You americans insist on calling everything that looks like an insect a
> bug. It's very silly ;-)
IIRC, the story is that we insist on calling all insects and insect-like
critters "bugs" (though not spiders, as a rule), whereas you want to
reserve the name "bug" for _Cimex lectularius_, the bedbug.
Note to And: The Riddle is hardly a stream. If you can't throw a rock
(BrE: stone) across it, it's a river. Of course, in the American West,
anything long enough is a river, even if it has about as much water as
comes out of the average faucet/tap/spigot (or even none at all: the
Colorado River no longer reaches the sea, as 100% of it is diverted sooner
or later for irrigation and other purposes).
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