A deer: famous for their antlers but why not their tails? | Helen Sullivan

In Celtic mythology they're known as "fairy cattle" The word deer comes from d"or and der, which in old and middle English meant, simply, "animal". The Dutch word "dier" still means this. The sense of a deer as an animal, as opposed to a human - it has been found to have referred to ants, fish and foxes - may come from "wildd"ornes", the origin of wilderness or wild-animal-ness. Deer still seem to embody this mysterious animal-ness: four-legged wildness, dainty and strong, mysterious and control...