zondag 22 maart 2009

Gavagaius Quinensus


Missing link between duck and rabbit, with philosophical traits. Rumor has it that Gavagaius survived in an evolutionary pocket well into the twentieth century, in the proximity of what is now Cambridge, Massachusetts, and that the last examplar of this species is preserved stuffed in the reliquary of the Cathedral of Learning, Pittsburgh.
The name is probably of American Native origin, although of a now extinct and isolate language family. Reports from the Quine-Davidson expedition surmise that the origin of the expression is ga'-va-gai [what-you-mean?]. This is disputed by Ian Hacking ("Was there ever a radical mistranslation?", Analysis 41:4, 1981; pp. 171-5)

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