the.com/fur
evolution's coat that came before fire, fashion, and your questionable life choices.
means The soft, thick hair covering the skin of many mammals, or the pelt of such an animal used as material for clothing.
from From Old French 'forrer,' meaning to line or sheathe — to encase something in a protective covering. The original idea wasn't the animal's coat at all, but the act of lining a garment, often with pelts. The word for the lining eventually crept onto the animal itself. It traces back to a Germanic root tied to a casing or sheath, a cousin of words meaning to cover or hide away — fitting, since fur is nature's own lining, worn snugly against the cold.
- goosebump origin
- humans still try to fluff fur we no longer have
- polar trick
- polar bear fur is transparent, not white
- sea otters
- densest fur on earth, a million hairs per inch
- fingerprint of warmth
- each strand traps air for insulation
- sloth ecosystem
- their fur grows algae and houses living moths
sable fur trade — russian siberian trade that drove 17th-century exploration and colonization eastward across russia
chinchilla fur industry — chilean animal farmed for pelts worth $200+ each, nearly extinct in wild by 1900s
seal fur controversy — canadian east coast hunt killing ~250,000 seals annually, subject of decades of animal rights protests
mink coat fashion — status symbol peaking in 1950s america; mink farms now represent bulk of fur industry