Aha! Perhaps you are right. Maybe they should be called seastars. But it doesn't matter. They are Starfish. That's what all the little kiddies call them when they find them washed up on the beach.
   Do you remember when the highway departments tried to get us to accept Kilometers in place of Miles? Fat Chance! Common names are common because that's what people call them:---Pig Toes, Heel Splitters, ---you get the idea. We are brilliant! We know the difference between a Conch and a Whelk. Others don't. Language is, and always has been, the product of people who understand it, local customs, baby talk, and them dang feriners.---whoever they may be.
    Art
>
> From: Ellen Bulger <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 2003/06/27 Fri AM 11:36:58 EDT
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: starfish & names
>
> "Hello All
> I believe star fish should be called sea stars.  Echinoderms are not
> fish.
> Jordan Star"
>
> Well.....
>
> I read a while back that"starfish" is a linguistic holdover from the
> days when taxonomy wasn't up to snuff and everything from the ocean was
> called a fish. Even crabs were crabfish. It's more a quaint common name
> than a scientific inaccuracy.
>
> Miss Ethel of Tarpum Bay calls Cassis flammea a "crane conch". I call
> it it a "flame helmet". Some folks call it a "princess helmet". The
> crane conch thing confused me until last year in Exuma. I was walking
> along the beach chatting with a Bahamian lad of about nine. He pointed
> out a bird that he called a crane. I thought, he's wrong, that's not a
> crane, that's an egret. Technically speaking, it believe it was Egretta
> thula. No birder me, I had to look up the scientific name.  I think of
> the bird as a snowy egret. Even with shells, the common name comes to
> mind and I have to translate in my head to the scientific name.
>
> We have scientific species names for precise communication.They are a
> very useful tool. I love precision in communication, but I wouldn't
> dismiss the common names too quickly. They are worth saving and
> cataloging and comparing. The information we get from the common names
> tells us more about ourselves, our cultures, our languages and our
> histories. Not to mention our politics. We assume our term is the
> "right" one. Dominant culture imposes its language. Is the insistence
> on scientific language, even in casual conversation, perhaps scientific
> imperialism? Eh?
>
> Ellen
>

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