Rex Trulove
One of the best definitions for the current meaning of the word ‘shrewd’ is probably “acute in perception and sound in judgment”. Today, calling someone shrewd isn’t necessarily an insult. It just means that they are observant and are good at exercising deduction.
This word has been in use since the 1300s and the original meaning was substantially different. Originally, the word meant wicked or evil. In fact, it comes from the old word shrewe, which literally means wicked or evil. Shrewd wasn’t used to mean cunning until the 1500s.
Today’s meaning is quite a bit different than it once was. What is interesting is that “shrewd” and “shrew”, the latter referring to a small insectivorous mammal, have a totally different origin, though there is only one letter that is different in the spelling.
“Shrew” comes from “screawa”, which means ‘shrew-mouse’. The root of the word means to cut and that is a reference to the creature’s pointed snout. In fact, while shrews might look a lot like mice, they are definitely not related. Mice are herbivorous rodents. Shrews aren’t rodents at all and they eat small invertebrates. The shrew must eat almost constantly. If it goes for longer than about three hours without food, it will die of starvation.
The point is that not only is the meaning of ‘shrewd’ changing, but the word also has a totally different origin than ‘shrew’ does.
This word has increased my vocabulary
That is a very good thing!
Cute critter and interesting story.
I’ve seen a few shrews and the one thing that I notice every time is that they are constantly moving.
Great post, love the photo of the Shrew and the story about it.
It sort of fit, to talk about the shrew as well. I find them to be very curious critters.
We don’t have Shrews here but looks like a very intelligent animal.
They are one of the smallest, weighing around 2 grams, and some of them are venomous; very rare for a mammal. The heartbeat of an Etruscan shrew has also been measured at over 1,500 beats per minute. That’s an incredible 25 beats per second, easily the fastest heartbeat for a mammal.