Editing Ferret (section)

==Etymology==
The name "ferret" is derived from the Latin {{Lang|la|furittus}}, meaning "little thief", a likely reference to the common ferret penchant for secreting away small items.<ref>[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ferret ferret] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090424030339/http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ferret |date=2009-04-24 }}. Merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2012-02-28.</ref> In [[Old English]] (Anglo-Saxon), the animal was called {{Lang|ang|mearþ}}. The word {{Lang|enm|fyret}} seems to appear in [[Middle English]] in the 14th century from the Latin, with the modern spelling of "ferret" by the 16th century.<ref name="Thomson"/>

The Greek word {{linktext|ἴκτις}} ''íktis'', Latinized as ''ictis'' occurs in a play written by [[Aristophanes]], ''[[The Acharnians]]'', in 425&nbsp;BC. Whether this was a reference to ferrets, polecats, or the similar [[Egyptian mongoose]] is uncertain.<ref name=Thomson/>

A male ferret is called a hob; a female ferret is a jill. A [[Neutering|spayed]] female is a sprite, a [[Neutering|neutered]] male is a gib, and a vasectomised male is known as a hoblet. Ferrets under one year old are known as kits. A group of ferrets is known as a "business",<ref>{{cite book |author1=Schilling, Kim |author2=Brown, Susan |title=Ferrets For Dummies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B81UEcbj28gC&pg=PT125 |year=2011 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-118-05154-2 |pages=125– |access-date=2016-07-29 |archive-date=2014-06-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140627140737/http://books.google.com/books?id=B81UEcbj28gC&pg=PT125 |url-status=live }}</ref> or historically as a "busyness". Other purported collective nouns, including "besyness", "fesynes", "fesnyng" and "feamyng", appear in some dictionaries, but are almost certainly [[ghost word]]s.<ref name="borgmann">{{cite book|title=Beyond Language: Adventures in Word and Thought|author-link=Dmitri Borgmann|first=Dmitri A.|last=Borgmann|location=New York|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|oclc=655067975|year=1967|pages=79–80, 146, 251–254|title-link=Beyond Language: Adventures in Word and Thought}}</ref>