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January 1, 2009

I Laughed While Reading, Part III of III

From Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum by Richard Fortey
It might seem an odd ambition to try to get everyone to pronounce a word correctly. But mine has always been to get the world to say “trilobite” without fudging, and with a certain measure of understanding. My own mother was wont to say “troglodyte,” which at least has a certain prehistoric dimension, even if it refers to human cave dwellers rather than extinct arthropods several hundred million years older than humans.

“Did you have a nice week with the troglodytes, dear?” was one of her regular enquiries.
Fortey is also the author of Trilobite: Eyewitness to Evolution.

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