We Will Never Look at Hedgehogs the Same
Hedgehogs have become a unique and popular household pet. They are small, spiny mammals that first evolved about 15 million years ago. There are 17 species in five genera of hedgehogs worldwide: Erinaceus, Paraechinus, Mesechinus, Atelerix and Hemiechinus. They live across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia. But what we know as hedgehogs today used to have a very different name. “TIL that Sea Urchins are called Sea Urchins because Hedgehogs used to be called Urchins until about the 15th century. Sea Urchins are Ocean Hedgehogs.” – Obscure Fact by theonewithBacon.
In history, hedgehogs are a commonly occurring animal in manuscripts and bestiaries throughout the Middle Ages. According to this adorable entry in the Bestiary, “hedgehogs feed their young grapes by climbing up the grapevine, dropping the grapes on the ground, and then rolling over the grapes so that they are impaled on the hedgehog’s spikes. The hedgehog then carries the grapes on its spikes back to the den where the young eats the fruit.” The oldest word for hedgehog that we can trace in historical sources is the Anglo-Saxon word “igl,” which is a Germanic word. This word for “hedgehog” still lives on in other Germanic languages, e.g. Swedish where a hedgehog is called “igelkott.” But throughout most of the Middle Ages, hedgehogs in English were called “urchins.”