What about geese is silly?

It's not so bad if someone calls you a "donkey." Here's why

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Sure, sheep are obedient, and geese are loud. But when did we decide to start calling each other animal names? Since biblical times, we’ve been dragging innocent animals into our human drama to describe each other’s worst behavior. In this article, we’ll explore whether that’s fair, and what other traits animals like donkeys or rats could be identified with.

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"Donkey" doesn’t have to be as offensive as one might think. Donkeys aren’t stupid—they’re just cautious. Up until the 1800s, they were known primarily as hardworking animals. But around that time, they fell out of favor as people began to notice their stubbornness.

Today, calling someone a donkey implies they’re being obstinate—or, plainly, dumb—though it’s milder than other animal insults. We can partly blame Mark Twain for popularizing the term as a stand-in for silly behavior.

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Blame medieval farmers for this one. By the 1500s, pigs’ legendary love of mud and gluttony had made them the perfect metaphor for human greed and sloppiness.

Today, calling someone a pig might accuse them of being messy, greedy, or even violent, depending on the context. You can always upgrade it to "swine" if you’re looking for a classier way to call someone "awful."

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Snakes never did have a good reputation. Their association with sneaky, venomous behavior (already present in the story of the Garden of Eden) meant that by the time Shakespeare was learning to write, "snake" had become the go-to insult for backstabbers.

Today, it’s still the ultimate label for betrayal. Snakes do have a knack for hiding before they strike, and they are, after all, the subject of one of the world’s most widespread phobias.

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"Rat" is another word for traitors—and one no one wants to be called. Rats are blamed for silently spreading disease and fleeing sinking ships. Their sneakiness made them a metaphor for turncoats and informants as early as the 1600s.

But you have to admit: the fact that they know when it’s time to leave a sinking ship hints at their intelligence. They’re also highly social animals.

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Weasels earned their shady reputation by sucking eggs clean. President Theodore Roosevelt popularized the term weasel words in 1916 to call out the slippery language of public figures.

Today, calling someone a weasel suggests they’re manipulative or evasive, especially in business or law. Unlike "rat," which screams betrayal, "weasel" implies quiet trickery.

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This might be the nicest insult on the list. Someone’s light-hearted attitude—or their playful, absent-minded mistakes—might earn them a loving "silly goose" medal.

But why? Geese aren’t clumsy or silly at all. We might interpret their cackles as loud and erratic, but it’s simply the language they’ve developed to communicate with the rest of the flock—they’re highly social animals!

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It was around the 1920s that "turkey" became slang for a theatrical failure—what we’d now call a "flop." The myth that turkeys drown in the rain sealed their dumb reputation, though real turkeys are surprisingly clever. Today, calling someone a turkey is usually a light jab at their clumsiness or incompetence.

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Enlightenment thinkers like Voltaire used "sheep" to mock blind followers, and the insult stuck. It’s still hurled at conformists who seem to heedlessly obey norms. The irony? Real sheep have impressive navigation skills and emotional intelligence.

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This one is hard to dispute: the image of lurking vultures is too unpleasant for them to earn any other reputation. Nothing says "exploiter" like a bird that feeds on corpses.

Since the 1500s, the behavior of professionals with shady morals or people who target anyone’s suffering for profit has usually been compared to that of "vultures."

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Buzzards are not vultures, and their name is used with a slightly different meaning. These hawks earned a mistaken reputation back in the Middle Ages. At the time, Europeans compared their behavior to that of noble falcons (good hunters) and concluded that buzzards must simply be lazy.

As a result, the word became a synonym for "incompetent" or "uncooperative."

Quirky pursuits

10 surprising hobbies of historical figures

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What would life be like without hobbies? Even the most brilliant minds and influential figures throughout history found time to pursue personal passions, some of which even intertwined with their main work, leading to groundbreaking discoveries. From gardening to pigeon collecting and dwarfs, here are 10 fascinating hobbies that shaped history's greatest personalities and helped fuel their success.

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Winston Churchill, known for his leadership during WWII, was also an avid painter. He took up painting later in life, at the age of 40, as a way to relax and express his admiration for impressionists like Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, and Paul Cézanne.

His paintings, mostly landscapes, were showcased at various exhibitions, and some were even sold to raise money for charity.

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Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, was passionate about gardening and horticulture. He meticulously planned and cultivated his extensive gardens at Monticello.

Jefferson's love for gardening went beyond leisure; he used it as a scientific experiment to test new crops and plant varieties.

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Albert Einstein, one of the most brilliant minds in science, was also an accomplished violinist. He began playing at the age of six and continued throughout his life, often performing for friends and family.

Einstein found music to be a source of relaxation and inspiration, and he believed it enhanced his creativity. He even stated that if he weren't a physicist, he would have been a musician.

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Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States, was a passionate hiker and adventurer. He often explored the rugged wilderness of the American West, particularly the Badlands of North Dakota, where he developed a deep connection with nature.

His personal experiences in the wild fueled his dedication to preserving natural landscapes, ultimately leading to the establishment of many national parks and natural monuments during his presidency.

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Beyond the passion for nature and biology that led him to his theory of evolution, Charles Darwin was also an enthusiastic birdwatcher in his spare time.

In fact, his observations of various bird species, particularly in the Galápagos Islands, played a pivotal role in the development of his theories and led to groundbreaking insights into the process of natural selection.

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Not surprisingly, Napoleon Bonaparte, one of history’s most renowned military leaders, was also a skilled chess player. His approach to the game mirrored his battlefield strategy, with a focus on intense, calculated moves.

For Napoleon, chess was both a mental challenge and a form of relaxation. His strategic thinking, sharpened on the chessboard, likely played a role in his success during military campaigns.

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Mark Twain, the celebrated American author best known for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and other works that captured the essence of American rural life, had a lifelong passion for fishing.

Just like his characters, he spent considerable time along the Mississippi River, where he enjoyed fishing as both a relaxing and philosophical activity.

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Nikola Tesla, the brilliant inventor known for his contributions to electrical engineering, had a uniquely unusual hobby—keeping and caring for pigeons. He developed a particular attachment to a white pigeon he often referred to as his "greatest companion."

A solitary—and often misunderstood—man, Tesla's affinity for pigeons gave him a sense of companionship in his later years.

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The surrealist artist Salvador Dalí had a complicated relationship with insects. He felt both repelled and inexplicably fascinated by these creatures, using them as inspiration in some of his paintings, particularly ants, which he associated with death and decay.

Dalí’s obsession with insects extended beyond art; he kept live specimens in his home and often used them for bizarre experiments.

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Edgar Allan Poe, the master of macabre literature, had a secret passion for cryptography. He enjoyed creating and solving complex ciphers and was one of the early proponents of the use of codes and ciphers in literature.

Poe even published an essay on cryptography, calling it the "art of secret writing."