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Fun fact: "urchin" used to mean hedgehog, which is probably why we call them "sea urchins"
@xyzzy i'm literally writing a paper on this topic right now! the most likely explanation is that some stories depicted fey creatures like elves turning into hedgehogs and this association allowed for association of mischievous fey which probably pushes the meaning towards our more Dickensian version of the word.
@sydneyfalk it's a helluva beast
@lobster_writer the world suddenly got clearer
@lobster_writer sonic the urchin would have been a *very* different game
@lobster_writer hmm! i wonder how it came to mean, like, street kid in the 1900s
also, now i want to get a hedgehog and name it Urchin ❤️