Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Musings on seashells

Not C shells, seashells. The offline version of the Guardian is giving away wallcharts of flora and fauna and yesterday's was Seashells. Whilst reading it with my son I was struck by the peculiarity, indeed the suggestiveness, of some of the names given to seashells. There are the obviously sniggersome: knobbed whelk, dog cockle, winkle (even Fred found that funny). Then there are the obscure trades from the Victorian underworld: ocean quahog, queen scallop. We have insults from a Hardy novel: common piddock, thick tellin. Finally, the unpleasant medical conditions: warty venus, spiny helmet.

Any of you who think I'm making too much of this are invited to consider the Linnaean name for the grooved razor clam: solens vagina.

2 comments:

Stephen Booth said...

As I recall the word vagina originally referred to the scabard a Roman soldier kept his sword (Gladius) in. I presume the shell in question looks like a roman scabard

Anonymous said...

Not being a language expert, I'd say that in general the word refers to a tubular or covering structure. In botany in particular, it means some kind of sheath. In biology or anatomy, e.g. vagina bulbi which covers (internal) the eyeball and nerves.