And here my guess was that *cheyIS* was a reference to the Star Trek episode The Chase. The request for "cephalopod" noted that cephalopods were the only non-tetrapod body plan in which intelligence had been known to develop, and Marc Okrand may have played on that request by referencing the episode that deals with the whys and wherefores of sapient species looking so much alike across the world of Star Trek (BTW, I've never seen that episode, just seen it referenced when reading stuff on the Net about the evolution of sapient life). Okrand could've turned "Chase" into either *cheS* or *cheyIS*, and *cheS* was already taken for ANOTHER type of animal, the rabbit, so that was clearly out. (Although English has homonyms like manakins and manikins and weavers and weevers and plantains and plantains . . .)

>Message: 2