Which animals can and can't be prefixed with "she-"?
I've heard of "she-wolf" (partially from mythology, partially from pop music), and I'm wondering which animals "she-" can and can't be used on.
Wiktionary mentions a variety of animals (she-ass, she-bear, she-cat, she-dog, she-elephant, she-goat, she-monkey, she-wolf) but apart from them all being placental mammals, there doesn't seem to be anything in common between them - some are domesticated, some aren't, some are carnivorous, some are vegetarian.
Which animals can "she-" and can't be used on, and why?
I tried looking for information on this, but came up with http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/threads/115063-she-horse and http://lydbury.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=2148.0 which don't fully answer my question.
The online etymology dictionary doesn't have any information about she as a prefix.
Solution 1:
This site has the following list of female terms with "she-":
she-ass (mule), she-bear, she-chuck (woodchuck), she-fox, she-goat, she-lion (lion & cougar).
She-bear is mentioned in English Bibles
Oxford English Dictionary 2d Ed. has a subsense of a dictionary entry "she":
- Female. Applied to animals, as in she-ass, she-bear, she-wolf (also fig.), etc.; she-dog, chiefly transf. = bitch 2; she-dragon, a female dragon; also transf.; she-lion slang, a punning distortion of ‘shilling’; she-stock, -stuff U.S., female cattle.
OAD 2d Ed. also has she-ape, she-raven, she-sparrow, she-cat, she-dingo, she-panther, she-lion, she-tiger, she-pigs, she-whales, she-fairies, she-devil, she-griffin, she-giant, she-furies, she-cousin, she-pensioners, she-priest, she-bishop, she-waiter, she-surgeon, she-slaves, she-fool in the definitions and/or examples.
Webster's Unabridged 3d Ed. has she-ass as a dictionary entry, and she-goat, she-fox, she-serpent, she-monster, she-demon, she-wolf, she-mule in the definitions.
Besides, Unabridged M-W has she-crab "an immature female blue crab".
Solution 2:
The prefix "she-" isn't listed in the dictionary. The only "she-" animal that is listed in the dictionary is a "she-wolf." There are no other "she-" animals listed.
The OED, while it doesn't list "she-bear" separately, it does list it as one of the two possibilities of "she-," along with "she-wolf," under the definition of "she."