THIS week’s #SLSWednesdayWord is a wonderful word for whimsy.
A whangam is an imaginary animal. It is an uncommon word which has had very little use in history, with the US being the prominent user. It has since become of the language’s obscure terms.
The word is first thought to be mentioned in the writings of Oliver Goldsmith in which he refers to a Chinese fable entitled ‘Five animals at a meal’.
“A grasshopper, filled with dew, was merrily singing under a shade; a whangam, that eats grasshoppers, had marked it for its prey, and was just stretching forth to devour it; a serpent, that had for a long time fed only on whangams, was coiled up to fasten on the whangam; a yellow bird was just upon the wing to dart upon the serpent; a hawk had just stooped from above to seize the yellow bird; all were intent on their prey, and unmindful of their danger: so the whangham ate the grasshopper, the serpent ate the whangham, the yellow bird the serpent, and the hawk the yellow bird; when, sousing from on high, a vulture gobbled up the hawk, grasshopper, whangham, and all in a moment.” Source of text: books.google.co.za – The Works of Oliver Goldsmith.
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