[Michael Juster]

OK, thanks everyone!

Although I have some residual uneasiness (almost always do...), the "It was good enough for T.S. Eliot, it ought to be good enough for you" argument won me over.

[Julie Steiner]

Incidentally, two poems by Richard Newman (whose All The Wasted Beauty of the World has just been pre-released by Able Muse Press) seem relevant to this thread:

Alley Possum

Bless Their Hearts

[Bill Carpenter]

My 1967 Webster's gives "possum" without any qualification as "backwoodsy," "rednecky," or "southron." In Texas, we used to go to Possum Kingdom Lake, a curving, 60-mile long enlargement of the Brazos River west of Weatherford. I would somewhat huffily characterize "opossum" as "zoological," or "pedantic, used for humorous effect."

[Gail White]

Not only was "possum" good enough for Eliot, it's also good enough for the Possum Growers and Breeders Association of America, Inc, who encourage more appreciation for these ubiquitous marsupials.

[Jayne Osborn]

Apologies to our friends from across the pond for this one. I will try to come up with a hedgehog question someday to balance it out.

No apologies necessary, Mike.

At least you didn't write "an hedgehog". Some Brits now put ''an'' before words beginning with ''h'', so we get constructions such as "There was an horrendous accident''... that resulted in lots of people going to "an hospital''.

But then, some Brits use ''an'' because they drop their aitches altogether: "I went to an 'ospital", or "I stayed in an 'otel".

(Unfortunately there is also the frequently-heard "Haitch", when someone is spelling out a word. That sets my teeth on edge.)

A possum √ a hotel √ a hospital √ all look right to me

Jayne

[Ann Drysdale]

I woke in the small hours wishing I hadn't written this, so I unwrote it.

[Brian Allgar]

Michael, if you are still in doubt, you could use the apostrophe solution, 'possum, which shows that you are neither a stiff-necked pedant, nor a red-necked ignoramus.

[Richard Epstein]

Pogo was a possum, not an oppossum. No apologies, no apostrophes. Of course he did live in the Okefenokee.

RHE

[Roger Slater]

According to this article, the opossum and the possum are two different animals.

[Janice D. Soderling]

Just to keep confusion percolating.

My copy of "Latin Names Explained: A Guide to the Scientific Classification of Reptiles, Birds & Mammals" (A.F. Gotch) says:

There tends to be confusion about the two names 'opossum' and 'possum'; there is no significance in the different names, though 'possum' was probably first used in America for the opossums of the family Didelphidae. Captain James Cook was said to have first used this abbreviated form and it is sometimes used in Australia for those in the family Phalangeridae. The expression 'playing possum' alludes to the animal's habit of lying on its back and presending to be dead when in danger from predators,

In the descriptions of each subspecies, some names include 'possum' and some 'opossum'.