This article is dedicated to all those times when you’re in a library or in a serious atmosphere studying or reading intently, and then suddenly burst in a fit of laughter amidst disapproving eyes.

Over years, usage, and languages, meanings of words change. Sometimes the change is meaningless, at other times it’s just unfortunate. The following five are examples are of the latter.

I’m sure there are many others, but this is all I could come up with at the moment. If you have any, please add them in the comments.

5. Dik-Dik

The only thing more curious than this animal’s name is it’s face. Antelopes develop slender frames so that they remain quick on their feet in case of attack from predators. They also attempt to maintain a low fat to muscle ratio to make the best out of their vegetarian digestive systems. This creature seems to be idealistic in this sense, but one can’t help but feel that something went horribly wrong in the history it’s family.

There are reasons for it’s oddities though. They are named “dik-dik” after the sound they produce when alarmed. Apparently the specialized shape of their heads allow them to eat leaves off Acacia trees without poking out their humongous eyes.

So it seems that despite all the weirdness, Dik-diks have it all: light frames for agility, large eyes and ears for good vision and hearing, optimized head shapes and a good camouflage of colour and size.

4. Goatsucker

Referring to Nightjars as goatsuckers is a bit like calling vampires humansuckers. It just doesn’t make sense!

Apparently the name comes from the mistaken belief that they suck milk from goats. While I’m sure that is not true, it would be pretty awesome if a bird could do that.

On a related note, to my surprise, I discovered a few days back that there is such a thing as bird milk. “Crop milk” is a protein rich food pigeons and doves produce to feed their young. They don’t have any nipples, but feed it to their chicks by way of regurgitation. Both the parents produce this milk, and it’s different from mammalian milk in many ways.

3. Boobies

…or Booby for singular, are seabirds. Their name might come from the Spanish slang for dunce – bobo. Like Dodos, these birds were hunted by many-a-sailor in the old times. Being seabirds, they probably did not recognize humans as a threat, and hence often landed on the ships waiting to be eaten. According to Wikipedia, among the famous eaters of boobies are Captain Bligh of the Bounty.

Apparently they’re delicious!

2. Great Tits

These classic passerines are common in many parts of the world. It’s scientific name Parus major can be roughly translated to mean “large titmouse” – also the origin of it’s common name. The entire Aviary family Paridae is full of tits. There are Japanese tits, Yellow tits, Somali tits, Varied tits, and various other tits in this family.

I’m sure avid bird watchers have loads of fun pointing out Great Tits to their kids.

1. Titi Monkeys

Tities or Titi Monkeys are new world monkeys from the Amazon. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any information on their curious names (perhaps it’s related to some local language) but they are surely among the more interesting of new world monkeys. Give their wikipedia page a read to see what I mean.

Next time an elementary school kid asks for your help to choose an animal for their class presentation, be sure to recommend the Tities. Oh how I would love to see the reaction on that teacher’s face.

I hope to have accomplised nothing more by this article than SEO.