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why is an ostrich called a ostrich2007-11-24 17:27:10Answers:

Probably for the same reason a dog is called a dog and a cat is called a cat.

Chow!!

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Cos an elephant didnt suit it? sorry couldnt resist

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Cos if it was called a chicken we'd all get confused and boiled eggs would take an hour to eat!

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because its not called an emu

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The cute cuddly name "panda" was already taken.

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Why is the sky blue? why this why that blah blah blah yadder yadder..who gives a toss

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cause

it

IS

now be quiet

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The scientific name for the ostrich is from the Greek for "sparrow camel."

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In the 17th century, Latin avis "bird" was borrowed into

English unchanged in the phrase rara avis, literally 'rare bird'

but used in the same sense as in Latin, to mean 'a marvel'.

Avis crops up again in the Latin derivative aviarium, the source

of our word aviary. But avis was aphonetically rather an

undernourished word, as one sees in particular when one

realizes that the v was pronounced like w in classical Latin times,

and the-s was an ending that would be changed in different cases of the noun. As a result, the word hides, virtually unrecognisable, in a number of words that have come down to us from Latin forms that have avis as part of a fixed phrase or compound.