Random Word Post – ratite

Tweet

I find a random word by flipping through my 2003 The New Webster’s Concise Dictionary and write a quick – often silly – little post about it. # “ratite – Designating any of various, large, flightless birds, as ostriches, kiwis, emus, etc. From Latin ratis, raft, in reference to lack of a keel on the sternum.” I should have figured there would be a more scientific term for flightless than, flightless. I’m guessing that, one of the reasons they are flightless is that they don’t have the skeletal structure to attach the muscles in such a way that they can flap their wings hard enough. But it seems weird that these scientists were wondering what to call these flightless birds, and they decided to go with the Latin word for raft. Makes sense.