The Casual Etymologist: Word of the Week

Engraving of a giraffe by Thomas Bewick
from a General History of Quadrupeds (1790)

When I was 18 I took a spur of the moment road trip to Paris with two school friends. We were all at different universities and were always looking for new ways to blow our student loans and upset our parents. When we drove off the ferry in Calais, there was an unspoken feeling of having done something either quite brilliant, or utterly thick-headed. I probably would have felt more  of the latter if I hadn't been so dazed with booze. Anyway, driving through the frozen Normandy countryside, we invented (I say invented, its probably been done a hundred times before, to the amusement of much younger, simpler minds than ours. Well, younger at least) a game to keep our spirits bouyant, and our driver conscious.
Basically, the idea was to make the most ridiculous combination of two animals we could think of. For example: a shark crossed with a snake became a Snark. It had the head of a shark on the body of a snake. A velociraptor crossed with a spider was therefore a Spaptor. Body of a raptor with the head of a spider. Basic biological principals did not play a massive part in this game, it has to be said. But why am I telling you all this? Well, firstly, because it's a highly entertaining and creative game, especially when you adorn your extraordinary, god-forsaken hybrid with bad-ass skills or abilities, and sketch it out for all to see. And secondly, because it ties in with this week's word of the week:

Cameleopard: noun, archaic term for a Giraffe