Polecat

Given my affection for under appreciated mammals and under used words it was just a matter of time before I got around to this one:  Polecat.

There is not even universal agreement on what a polecat is.  The cute critter seen above is a European polecat, also known as a black ferret.  But the term is also used on occasion to describe our old friend here in the US, the skunk.  They look a bit alike but are not actually related.

Polecat is an odd word, it combines cat, which is pretty self explanatory, with pole.  Pole is probably a variant of the French poule meaning poultry.  So a chicken eating catlike critter.  An alternative version would have its origins be related to another French word poulent, meaning "stinking".  While not as odoriferous as skunks these guys do have scent producing glands.  

The application of the European term polecat to the new black and white critter of North America was likely just a matter of early settlers, apparently Dutch, being somewhat unfamiliar with skunks and polecats.....yet knowing enough to not want to make a close up inspection!

Calling someone a polecat in the 21st century would seem to be a folksy, mild kind of insult.  It has about it a hint of hillbilly rascality.  But in earlier times this would be considered a grave insult, as polecat was a term used to describe promiscuous women. No less an authority that Shakespeare used it (in Merry Wives of Windsor):

   "Out of my door, you witch, you hag, you baggage, you polecat, you runyon!”

Now lest you consider it an injustice that polecats have been given a bad reputation in such matters, well, they've earned it.  They actually are pretty aggressively promiscuous.  Rather like their close relatives, mink, who oddly are not responsible for another synonym for female promiscuity: Minx.

And if you further consider it an injustice that these terms are reserved exclusively for females, when there by definition must be promiscuous males involved, well there you do have an excellent point.