Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A • S P R I N G 2 0 1 8 52 W I L D W E S T W OR DS QUALL W I L D W E S T W OR DS with CHRYSTI THE WORDSMITH D E PA R T M E N T H E R I TA G E Caught mid-hike in a sudden, howling Montana spring storm, I found myself huddling against the wind and wondering about the meteorological word squall. As the snowflakes swirled past, I was reminded of the other squall that refers to a loud discordant cry. How exactly, I pondered, is the vocal squall related to the storm squall? Fortunately, the latter is a short-lived phenomenon. e one that had caught me quickly passed on. I headed home and went straight to the Oxford English Dictionary, which reports that the vocal sense of squall came first. It originated as an onomatopoeia in the Scandinavian languages, and is related to the similar-sounding squeal. Squall appears in a 1630 English docu- ment that describes the cry of a bird: "e Raven croakes, the carrion crow doth squall, the pye doth chatter, and the partridge call." e word went on to imitate the sound of cats, geese, parrots, children, and inept singers. Meanwhile, the meteorological squall was brewing. In 1719, Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe, was one of the first to print the word with the sense of a sudden, violent storm. e uniting element of the two meanings, of course, is the sound. e howl- ing wind of a storm can indeed resemble the discordant cry of a squall. ere are about 300 species of wild and domestic goat in the world. e only species indigenous to North America is the mountain goat. Its native range includes parts of the states of Alaska, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Archaeo- logical evidence and cultural lore are rich in information about the ways in which North American natives hunted the mountain goat in its craggy, vertiginous environment. Domestic goats were imported from the Old World to the Americas in the 1600s. Along with the creature came its English name and the myriad of meta- phors accompanying it. Goat is a word of great antiquity. It appeared in an English document dated 1200, and etymologists source it beyond that to the ancient Indo-European lan- guage spoken in inland Eastern Europe some 9,000 years ago. In more recent centuries, it's the goat's playfulness, agility, and perceived lascivi- ousness that's been linguistically commemorated in English. For example, calling a man an "old goat" implies he's a lecher who amorously pursues females like a rutting billy. In an 1857 novel, Texas humorist Samuel A. Hammit had a character say, "I see the old goat a huggin' and a kissin' her… when he thought no one wasn't a lookin' at him." On the other hand, the young goat, "the kid," provides an affectionate name for the youthful among us who caper and chase about. Female goats have been called nannies since at least the mid-1700s. is term, applied to human nursemaids as well, is the British pet form of the names Agnes and Anne. Male goats get their designation from the tough, street-wise name Billy, the pet form of William. e Latin word for goat is caper, the source of the English word meaning "playful goat-like skip or leap." is caper, incidentally, is unrelated to the green salty condiment. But the adjective capricious is a relative, and it means "whimsically changeable, impulsive"—like the capers of a goat. e term cab, or cabriolet comes from the Latin capriolus, meaning "little goat." Public cabs in 18th and 19th century London were small horse-drawn carriages with springy suspension that made them leap like goats on rough streets. Capricorn, the name of the zodiac sign, literally means "goat horn." e Isle of Capri off the western coast of the Italian peninsula was likely named for the native goats that live on and among the island's rocky promontories. G O AT JEREMIE HOLLMAN S Q U A L L

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