Why they call baby Goats Kids.

This past week, I tried to explain this thing to my cousin's daughter. She looked at me as if I was just lying, which is a bit understandable, since the explanation does sound odd if you think about it.

The word kid that we use to refer to a human child is also used to refer to a young goat. The word "kid" has its root in some Nordic or possibly Germanic language, one of those ancient languages where the words sound as if you had to clear your throat when you speak.

The English language has a long history of borrowing words from other languages, and at some point, English borrowed the word kid from those ancient languages centuries ago. For a long time after this borrowing, the word kid ended up meaning young goat. By the 1500s or 1600s, people started to use the word kid as slang to mean human child. This is most likely due to some similar behaviour characteristics between young goats and young children, like they being hyper.

When I was younger, I remember seeing my uncle's goats when they were really young. They would jump on everything and chew on everything. They were a nuisance. Perhaps this is why we have adopted this term to mean a child.

Now, we are using the word kid so often now that it is almost odd to me when I call a baby goat a kid. The historical concept seems to be that Old Norse fishermen or farmers used the word "kid" before human children were called kids. Language itself is peculiar in this way.