[lit-ideas] "Bobcat for hire"
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2004 12:49:38 EDT
In a message dated 9/3/2004 12:06:37 PM Eastern Standard Time, pas@xxxxxxxx
writes:
As I was driving me ole mum to swimming yesterday, I saw a sign by the road
that said "Bobcat for Hire". Mother casually said "I wonder what it eats."
-- a bobcat is a very small front-end loader used for digging small
holes, clearing sidewalks etc.
----
Well, the literal 'bobcat' (lynx rufus) certainly eats _meat_ (usually hens)
-- but this may be a triained one. One wonders why they would only just
_hire_ her. I suppose just for the vacation time. Oddly, the OED entry does
not
mention the odd 'loader' _usage_ Stone oddly mentions. -- Maybe he should
_mailto:oed3@xxxxxxxxxx (mailto:oed3@xxxxxxxxx) .
Cheers,
JL
bobcat -- from BOB n.1 5, in allusion to the short tail. -- The bay lynx,
Lynx rufus, a small North American lynx with a spotted reddish-brown coat.
Also
transf.
1888 R. ROOSEVELT in Century Mag. Mar. 656
We also keep hens, which, in spite of the damaging inroads of hawks,
bob~cats, and foxes, supply us with eggs.
1906 Springfield Weekly Republ. 20 June 2
The creation of this new commonwealth on virgin soil, where for centuries
the wolves, bob-cats and Indians had leisurely roamed.
1911 O. WISTER Members of Family vii. 250, I came for a box of matches, y'u
bawlin' bobcat.
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