Karen Cavale, age 12, of Visalia, California, for her question:

Why are elephants called pachyderms?

The "dean" part of this word means "skin", as in epidermis. But the "pachy" part has nothing to do with patches or freckles. It comes from an older word meaning "thick". When the science of zoology was younger, the term pachyderm was used to classify certain animals with thick skins. The list included rhinos and hippos, horses and pigs and, of course, the thick skinned elephants. Later, more precise methods were used to classify these animals in separate groups.

The elephant's skin is actually about one inch thick. You might think that such a thick skin is at least tough enough to keep out the cold. But this is not so. When the temperature drops to freezing, the unhappy giant suffers severe cramps. Nowadays he is classified in the Order Proboscidae, a term that refers to his long nosey trunk. Perhaps we still call him a pachyderm because the term has a grand and very suitable sound to it.