Word To Use Today: squid.

Admit it: you've been under-using the word squid, haven't you.



This is a shame, because squids are wonderful things. For a start, some of them can fly. All right, admittedly not very far, but, let's face it, probably rather further than you can.

Squids also have beaks, which is neat, too.

That's nowhere near the end of their wonders, either. A squid can change its colour to suit its surroundings (just think how different and more glorious the history of the world would have been if humans had the power to do that).

Not only that, but in almost every colour variation a squid's underside will stay lighter than its topside, making it almost invisible to both prey and predator.

How about that, it does invisibility, too!

Squid aren't dumb, either. Some of them, for instance, hunt in groups. (To grasp the significance of this, think how hard it is to organise a group of humans to catch even something fairly predictable, like a train.) 

Ah, you say, but do squid do marvellous stuff like novels and poetry?

Well, I don't know about that, but squid ceratinly have three hearts, so who's to say they don't have deep and tender emotions of which we know nothing.

Now, I don't know about you, but I'm beginning to feel a little inadequate, and that's before I've got as far as the Colossal Squid.  This may grow to 14 metres in length, which is, frankly, a terrifying thought.

Still, not to worry, we humans can soon get our revenge.

There's always calamari.

Word To Use Today: squid. This word has been used in English since the 1600s, but sadly no one knows where it came from.

Mermaids?

PS In Britain, squid may be used as a term for pounds sterling, as in a million squid. In this case it's rhyming slang for quid.