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Funny Goat
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The Modern English word goat comes from the Old English gāt which meant "she-goat", and this in turn derived from Proto-Germanic gaitaz (cf. Old Norse and Dutch geit "goat", German Geiß "she-goat", and Gothic gaits "goat"), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ghaidos meaning "young goat" (cf. Latin haedus "kid"), itself perhaps from a root meaning "jump" (assuming that Old Church Slavonic zajęcǐ "hare", Sanskrit jihīte "he moves" are related). To refer to the male of the species, Old English used bucca (which survives as "buck") until a shift to he-goat (and she-goat) occurred in the late 12th century. "Nanny goat" (for females) originated in the 18th century and "billy goat" (for males) in the 19th.
History
Goats are among the earliest animals domesticated by humans. The most recent genetic analysis confirms the archaeological evidence that the Anatolian Zagros are the likely origin of almost all domestic goats today. Another major genetic source of modern goats is the Bezoar goat, distributed from the mountainous regions of Asia Minor across the Middle East to Sind.
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