Hi Ya'll,
 
Couldn't stay out of this one after all.  While Bob Church may be able to
readily look at sources of root words, one often finds that those roots are
just parts of old words, not the words used.
 
I studied Classical Latin, tis true.  It is a dead language, so I feel safe
in looking at wonderful Latin dictionaries like Oxford's for words.  Oh and
yes, I do cross check words in English and French as well, since I speak
both of those also.  Also you say?  Yep, I learned not only to read Latin
(which most people only learn the scientific version, which is considerably
different from Roman Latin) but to speak and write it.  I read, as required
in my studies, several texts written in Latin throughout the Roman Empire,
from beginning to end.  You should read Ceaser's Gallic Wars in the
original, quite entertaining.  I have also read such things as Beowulf in
the original language (old English in this case).
 
I can also read Old and Middle English.  French hasn't changed that much
since the Norman invasion and actually English grammer is French based, as
is much of our language.  We also have many Latin and German words.  In
fact, Old English is more Germanic than anything else.
 
I have checked my personal 2 volume copy of the Oxford dictionary and it
does say that polecat *might* be from a French variation.  However, the
Oxford Latin dictionary does not list catus (I could find no variation that
used cattus) as used in mammals, it is an adjective, meaning clever or
sneaky.
 
Feles, not Felis, is used to describe small carnivora which include martins
and polecats.
 
But Bob started out stating that we were wrongly assuming the modern French
putois for polecat was related to the old French.  Well Bob, in a copy of a
NORMAN dictionary (old enough?), polecat is listed as Putois or Puthois.
Actually, to be specific, it lists putois as meaning fulmart.
 
Now remember some time ago when you where trying to say that the Welsh word
ffwlbart meant ferret and I pointed out that it was actually polecat?  Can
you see the relationship between ffwlbart and fulmart (especially after
considering that ffwlbart is pronounced foolbart?).
 
And the older French version of cat is Chaton, not chat.
 
And you recommended Follet's Latin dictionary by Levine?  Well, it lists
polecat as feles.  Maybe you should recheck your own sources.
 
And I hate to burst anyone's bubble with all the rhyming schemes with
mustelidae, but to say the word ends in the "day" sound is a modern, more
scientific way.  In classical Latin, the spoken version, it would be
pronounced "eye."
 
I will heartily admit the possibility that maybe somewhere there is a word
listed as poulchat.  I can't find it though.  But I don't want anyone to
think that was the last word on it's origins.  And I did try to find it,
checked Latin, Old English, Norman, Anglo-Saxon dictionaries.
 
I love words, I love language.  But I also the love the careful use of
terms.  I have a dear friend on this list who, when we were children, would
challenge any new word I used.  We would randomly pick words out from an
unabridged dictionary and force each other to use them.  Started in grade
school.  We are both in the top 5 percentile of smarts in the US and
vorascious readers (I read around 600 words per minute with 95%
comprehension).  Which means I read alot, only have to read things once to
absorb them and therefore, have piled up a considerable amount of useless
bits of archaic information in my little grey cells.
 
So now, maybe with this long, rather meaningless post, I am finally as
boring as Mo' Bob.  I aim to please.
 
Maggie Mae, in full wordsmythie mode, on Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park
 
-----
If you have to ask what Jazz is, you'll never know.
 
L. Armstrong
[Posted in FML issue 2063]