The elephant said, "I'll come clean...
I once had a fling as a teen.
The mermaid was flirty,
we got down and dirty,
and the offspring was quite manatine."
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Author Notes
Today's word:
manatine (adj.) resembling a manatee.
Christopher Columbus is said to have mistaken three manatees sunning on a rock for mermaids. Not sure how anyone could make that mistake! The 3 species of manatee, along with the dugong, comprise the order Sirenia - guess where that came from! The closest living relative to these creatures is the elephant.
My much-treasured Christmas present for 2017 is a book by Paul Anthony Jones: "The cabinet of linguistic curiosities". Each page contains a descriptive story about some obscure or archaic word. It occurred to me it would be a fun exercise to try and write, each day, a poem featuring the "word of the day" from the book.
Thanks for reading.
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