I was listening to the radio news today, when they put on a little bit about some kind of AI driven ultrasound gizmo. I wasn’t paying a great deal of attention until the presenter said that it would possibly be good for early detection of breast cancer, and it might be a good alternative to “mammalgrams.”
I guess that’s what they really are, in a particular species specific fashion.
It checks out- there is a common origin:
[Mammary] Etymology. From French mammaire, from Latin mamma (“breast”).
[Mammal] The word “mammal” is modern, from the scientific name Mammalia coined by Carl Linnaeus in 1758, derived from the Latin mamma (“teat, pap”).
Actually I was aware of that. That’s why I thought the malapropism (If it was a malapropism) was amusing.
It was more for my own edification. I was wondering, was the term ‘mammary’ derived from ‘mammal’, or did they both have a common root origin?
Both derive from the Latin “mamma” for “breast”, the serious etymologists can expound further, but the connection is obvious as mammary glands are the feature clearly separating mammals from other classes of animals (exceptions for the monotremes?). Apparently ‘mammalia’ for the class of animals was coined by Linnaus in 1758 while ‘mammary’ started earlier. But etymology sometimes has a complicated path from modern words to their origins.
ETA: Monotremes have mammary glands but no nipples.
I must admit that I love it when I hear mispronunciations and malapropisms. My favorite remains the time a sports announcer was talking about a team from the U.P. of Michigan. He claimed that people who live there are called “Uppers”. No, their called Yoopers, but thanks for being human.
Whenever a news reporter calls the KKK the “Klu Klux Klan”.
I know it now all rhymes but it’s KU not KLUE.
I enjoy them too.
Some years back (around about 2019) I heard a BBC announcer who was doing a spot on NPR news refer to the “Chump, I mean Trump” administration.
I’m not sure that one was accidental.
I used to have a regular UPS delivery guy who once mentioned that he was from the northern part of Michigan (I had a package from Michigan). So, I said “A yooper?” And he looked up and smiled. Said he was surprised I knew the term.
As a Baja Yooper (Wisconsinite), we’re always amused by newscasters mangling Native names.
Our favorite is that big lake south of Green Bay: Lake Win’-a-BAY’-go.
We heard it referred to as Lake WinnAH’-buh-go by a talking head (who had clearly just moved from another market)… after that we could never pronounce it correctly; it was too much fun to mangle it.
But wait, there’s more…
Years later, there were floods somewhere down south, and a national news guy said, referring to an iconic brand of motorhome, “And look at this footage where a family’s WinnAH’-buh-go goes floating by.” The exact same mispronunciation!
Viewers in the Pacific Northwest experience this, too. I hope they’re as easily amused as our family.