Comments on: Rats Three Ways (Neotoma spp.) http://www.dailymammal.com/rats-three-ways-neotoma-spp/ 5,000 Mammals, One Day at a Time Wed, 14 Jul 2010 03:52:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Jennifer Rae Atkins http://www.dailymammal.com/rats-three-ways-neotoma-spp/comment-page-1/#comment-681 Jennifer Rae Atkins Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:23:00 +0000 http://www.thedailymammal.com/?p=269#comment-681 As far as I can tell, amberat does indeed come from the words amber and rat smooshed together. The earliest reference I found was from the 1950s. <br/><br/>That's disgusting about the Manly expedition! Poor guys. I wonder if they ever learned what it was. As far as I can tell, amberat does indeed come from the words amber and rat smooshed together. The earliest reference I found was from the 1950s.

That’s disgusting about the Manly expedition! Poor guys. I wonder if they ever learned what it was.

]]> By: Neil http://www.dailymammal.com/rats-three-ways-neotoma-spp/comment-page-1/#comment-680 Neil Thu, 26 Mar 2009 06:19:00 +0000 http://www.thedailymammal.com/?p=269#comment-680 I suppose "amberat" must be a portmanteau although unfortunately it doesn't seem to be in the OED. I wonder if it comes by way of "ambergris" the "wax-like substance of marbled ashy colour, found floating in tropical seas, and as a morbid secretion in the intestines of the sperm-whale. It is odoriferous and used in perfumery; formerly in cookery." (OED)<br/><br/>My favorite amberat anecdote is the one about the <a>Manly expedition</a>, a group of settlers that took the packrat middens they had found for native american food caches:<br/><br/>"It was evidently food of some sort, and we found it sweet but sickish, and those who were so hungry as to break up one of the balls and divide it among the others, making a good meal of it, were a little troubled with nausea afterward."<br/><br/>Manly felt guilty afterwards for stealing food from the natives!! I suppose “amberat” must be a portmanteau although unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be in the OED. I wonder if it comes by way of “ambergris” the “wax-like substance of marbled ashy colour, found floating in tropical seas, and as a morbid secretion in the intestines of the sperm-whale. It is odoriferous and used in perfumery; formerly in cookery.” (OED)

My favorite amberat anecdote is the one about the Manly expedition, a group of settlers that took the packrat middens they had found for native american food caches:

“It was evidently food of some sort, and we found it sweet but sickish, and those who were so hungry as to break up one of the balls and divide it among the others, making a good meal of it, were a little troubled with nausea afterward.”

Manly felt guilty afterwards for stealing food from the natives!!

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