I really like weasels, actually (when I was little I wanted a pet ferret, but my mother wouldn't let me).
After consulting the OED, though, I'm blaming Shakespeare.
transf. and fig. 1599 SHAKES. Hen. V, I. ii. 170 For once the Eagle (England) being in prey, To her vnguarded Nest, the Weazell (Scot) Comes sneaking, and so sucks her Princely Egges. 1632 CHAPMAN & SHIRLEY Ball I. (1639) A4, Co. Dee not know him, tis the Court dancing Weesill. Ma. A Dancer, and so gay. 1633 B. JONSON Tale Tub I. vi, Wherefore did I, Sir, bid him Be call'd, you Weazell, Vermin of a Huisher? 1638 FORD Fancies II. ii, Whoreson, lecherous weazle! 1790 WOLCOT (P. Pindar) Advice to Future Laureat II. 39 Brudenell, thou stinkest! weasel, polecat, fly! 1886 P. ROBINSON Teetotum Trees 39 A thin little weasel of a Bengalee Baboo.
I also note that in the middle ages, weasels were held to kill not just snakes, but basilisks (this explains a line in one of the poems I was reading yesterday, where Satan was refered to as Hellebasileus, which I connected with Gk basileos, king, and idiotically forgot the basilisk).
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
regna
(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-29 09:39 am (UTC)After consulting the OED, though, I'm blaming Shakespeare.
transf. and fig. 1599 SHAKES. Hen. V, I. ii. 170 For once the Eagle (England) being in prey, To her vnguarded Nest, the Weazell (Scot) Comes sneaking, and so sucks her Princely Egges. 1632 CHAPMAN & SHIRLEY Ball I. (1639) A4, Co. Dee not know him, tis the Court dancing Weesill. Ma. A Dancer, and so gay. 1633 B. JONSON Tale Tub I. vi, Wherefore did I, Sir, bid him Be call'd, you Weazell, Vermin of a Huisher? 1638 FORD Fancies II. ii, Whoreson, lecherous weazle! 1790 WOLCOT (P. Pindar) Advice to Future Laureat II. 39 Brudenell, thou stinkest! weasel, polecat, fly! 1886 P. ROBINSON Teetotum Trees 39 A thin little weasel of a Bengalee Baboo.
I also note that in the middle ages, weasels were held to kill not just snakes, but basilisks (this explains a line in one of the poems I was reading yesterday, where Satan was refered to as Hellebasileus, which I connected with Gk basileos, king, and idiotically forgot the basilisk).