having or showing good manners or respect for other peopleīetray – v. a domesticated animal kept for pleasure rather than utility overall quality or character as seen or judged by people in general a serious disease that mainly affects the lungs : also called TB a food that people like to eat because it is special or rare The song at the end is Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton singing "I Smell a Rat." I smell a rat, baby."Īnna Matteo wrote this story for VOA Learning English. But in life, maybe we should take another look at rats and give them a chance.Īnd that brings us to the end of this Words and Their Stories.ĭo rats have a good reputation in your country? Please tell us! It would be nice to know there is a place on this planet where saying "Rats!" is a good thing. So, when using the word “rat” in English know that the meaning is never a good one. You would not say that a hardened, possibly violent criminal tattled on another. In old police television shows and movies, you may hear one criminal criticize another who snitched to the police. Most criminals have a different code of conduct among themselves: You don't rat on fellow criminals to the police. Well, another criminal might not approve. However, nobody would blame you for sharing information with the police if it helps them catch a criminal. You may feel you don't want to rat on someone else. When the police begin asking questions, you decide to keep that information to yourself. ![]() Let's say you have information about a crime. However, it is a little different when the police are involved. ![]() No matter what your age, nobody likes to be called a rat, a snitch or a tattletale. But ratting someone out or snitching on them can be for any age. The words tattling and tattletales are often used for children. Ratting on people, or tattling on them, will not win you friends. Let's say you know that your brother ate the last piece of cake when he wasn't supposed to. When you rat on someone, you tell on them. To rat on someone means to betray a loved one, friend or someone else you know. A rat snitches on someone to an authority figure – a parent, a teacher, a police officer.Īs a verb, the word "rat" isn't good either. When describing people, a “rat” is someone who is not loyal or cannot be trusted. So, calling someone a "rat" is never an expression of respect or affection. This is the home of pack rat, also known as a hoarder. And worse, they live with all the stuff they have collected. This is a person who keeps useless things. If you feel that someone has betrayed you, you can say that you smell a rat.Ī pack rat is not good, either. When we say, “I smell a rat!” we suspect that something is wrong. The term is common and polite - unlike some of our other expressions we might use when we are angry.Īs we said earlier, rats may have a good sense of smell. The simplest way we use this word is to simply say, “Rats!” Americans often use this expression when something goes wrong. None of our rat expressions means anything good. But the fact that rats have a really bad reputation in American English is not debatable. So, scientists can debate the role of rats in spreading disease. Such is the difficult life of an unwanted, misunderstood animal. Teachers sometimes keep them in classrooms for students to care for. Today, however, gerbils are pets in many American homes. But these animals were not carrying spices and silk, but rather disease. They suspect that gerbils traveled to Europe from Asia, some along the Silk Road that traders used. ![]() Scientists now think that it was most likely not rats, but another rodent, the gerbil, that caused the Bubonic plague. ![]() It does not help your reputation when you are accused of killing at least one-third of the population of an entire continent.īut, perhaps we shouldn’t be so quick to judge. And the world has long blamed rats for spreading diseases, like the Bubonic plague in Europe during the 14th century. They have pointed noses and long, thin tails. For the most part, rats are not beloved animals.įor starters, they're not cute. An African Giant Pouch rat is seen before a training session where the rats will learn to detect tuberculosis (TB) at a university laboratory in Tanzania, 2006.īut do these things make people love rats?
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