I was thinking about weasels—because they’re cute and fierce, also because I’m watching His Dark Materials and, having read the books, I know how Pan settles—and about the descriptive noun, “weasel.” The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a weasel as “a sneaky, untrustworthy, or insincere person.” Clearly, the people who first started using “weasel” to describe someone as “sneaky” knew nothing about weasels.

Every member of the Mustelidae family is a super predator for its niche. Anything the same size or smaller than any one of these furry murder slinkies is a possible meal, and sometimes animals many times the size of the mustelid are also on the menu. A common weasel, which in some parts of its range can be as small as a mouse, might hunt and kill a much larger rabbit. Honey badgers, about the size and weight of French bulldogs, famously don’t give a fuck and will fight lions for their shit. Giant river otters will fight and kill crocodiles. A wolverine, about the size and weight of an English bulldog, might hunt and kill a moose 😳 Humankind should count itself very lucky indeed that wolverines never took to living and hunting in packs like their otter cousins do 🦦

All of this 😅 to say:

A “weasel” shouldn’t be a “sneaky, untrustworthy” person.

A weasel is a small badass who will fuck up your day if you give ’em half a reason.