Re: Gophers -- more

Joan:

There's more to "gopher" here than meets the eye.

Although I have never heard the name "gopher" applied
to the population of Arkansas, I do know that the
University of Minnesota's athletic teams are named
"Gophers" (Golden Gophers to be precise).

I'm not surprised that the folks of Florida are
nicknamed this because, as you say, they are neighbors
of the gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus), a
"threatened" species.

We also have a threatened species of land tortoise
here in our own southwest, Gopherus agassizii.

And there are two other "gophers": Berlandier's
Tortoise (G. berlandieri) inhabits near-desert and
wooded areas of Texas and northern Mexico and the
recently discovered (1959) Gopherus flavomarginatus
lives in North Central Mexico.

When it comes to mammals, the name gopher is applied
to various ground squirrels (species of Spermophilus;
formerly Odospermophilus and Citellus).

But here in California, when gardeners hear the name
"gopher", they invariably mean the "pocket gophers",
any of five species of furry critters of the genus
Thomomys of the family Geomyidae.  A total of nine
species reside in the Western states.  Most of our
populated portions of the state will see Thomomys
bottae.  There are "Eastern Pocket Gophers" as well
(genus Geomys) and "Mexican Pocket Gophers" (genus
Pappageomys) and one Zygogeomys species (Mexico).

One last note:  in American business offices, we have
"gophers" as well.  In this environment, we spell it
"go-fer's", for those various assitants that go 'fer
this and go 'fer that.

Joe

--- jhead@headfamily.freeserve.co.uk wrote:
> Many thanks to those who have helped me out on this.
>  I was intrigued when I first 
> saw the word because it reminded me of my
> mother-in-law who used to goffer the 
> ruffs that the choir boys wore on Sundays.  The
> goffering iron created beautiful 
> frills, and had to be reheated on the stove at
> frequent intervals.  I have since 
> turned to the Oxford English Dictionary and see that
> the etymology of goffer is 
> gaufrer from the French and gaufre means a
> honeycomb.  And the OED  quotes 
> Webster "gaufre was used by the French settlers in
> North America as a name for 
> various burrowing animals, and is a transferred use
> of gaufre honeycomb".  
> 
> The OED also gives the name gopher to inhabitants of
> Arkansas or Minnesota (this 
> is under the pocket gopher meaning) and to
> inhabitants of Florida (under the land-
> tortoise meaning).  Do you really call them gophers?
>  And if you do, do they like 
> this?   
> 
> I think the nearest thing over in UK is the mole,
> which people either love or hate, 
> depending on whether they are gardeners or not.  The
> only application to humans 
> that I know of is where someone is working
> underground in a metaphorical sense, 
> i.e. unknown to fellow workers, possibly as a spy.
> 
> Joan, UK
> 


=====
Joe Seals
Santa Maria, California --
where the weather is always perfect
and my garden always has something blooming
and birds galore

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