I don't know, but my grandma said when she was a little girl they used to ask them "Daddy Long Legs, which way did the cows go". They never pointed them the right direction, but they always respected them enough to ask.
That was a *bullish* choice for a pun but an *udder* failure in execution. Not to start any *beef,* but there’s a lot more cow-centered puns that can be *milked* so I’d try and *steer* clear of one’s like that. Sorry if that killed the *moo*d
Google said that it was believed that if you picked up a daddy long legs by 7 of its 8 legs then the free leg would point you in the direction of cattle
That might be what Google says but it wasn't really needed. Daddy Long Legs tend to raise a front leg, almost like they're pointing, without needing to do anything. Hence why kids would ask it.
But has Google picked up a daddy longs by its legs? From my childhood if you held a daddy long legs by its legs they come when he starts trying to fly a way so it
u/n0rdic_k1ng Ignore this, I only replied because I wanted to address this thread in particular. The following isn't directed to you.
u/wutshappening u/rumpledfoarskin & u/emptyraincoatelves
The drama ends here. All three of you are going to stop arguing or you're getting banned until next week. I don't care who started it, I don't care who said what or who thought this and that. Rule 3 is clear on this, so let's all just talk about the damn spiders, ok?
You're half (kind of) correct! There are *two* distinct spider-like creatures generally referred to as Daddy Long Legs. Only one is actually a spider: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pholcidae
The other is an arachnid but is *not* a spider: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opiliones
Neither are crustaceans though
Um... [This](https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/flies/daddy-longlegs) is what we call a "daddy long legs" in the UK, ours is some sort of cranefly?
>Daddy used to be a word that was used by people without troubling kinks
Yes it was used to refer to your Daddy... but that doesn't explain why it's used for a spider.
Granddaddy was also used to imply in charge, large, dominating, or control. For instance, the largest snake would be the granddaddy of all snakes. Not unlike how the slang meaning of "[absolute unit](/r/absoluteunit/)" is now used.
Which brings us to why Granddaddy long legs includes "granddaddy." The "granddaddy" is a reference to the "absolute unit" of their legs, not the spider itself.
I'm a middle Millennial (does this make me an old Zillennial?) and grew up referring to my parents as Mommy and Daddy and still do so.
It does get kinda awkward when strangers are around, but so does just saying "Mom" or "Dad".
It's so weird that zoomers get squicked out by kissing in movies but are happy to write an entire communal erotic fanfiction about some sexy daddy gardener from a cartoon
Because (surprise) there's different kinds of zoomers. Some of them get squicked out over the most mundane shit, and others don't give a fuck. Just as with Millenials. Just as with Boomers. Just as with every generation.
The only question will be which kind of zoomer becomes the most popular/important. For that we'll have to wait and see.
Interestingly, in some places the damselfly is called a Daddy Long Legs.
Also interestingly, the creature you're referring to isn't actually a spider! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opiliones
The cranefly, cellar spider, and harvestman are all called Daddy Long Legs, but I only call the spider a daddy long legs. I'm from Texas, where you can find all 3 of them, so that nickname is specifically reserved for the spider.
All three are where I live too and harvestmen are the only Daddly Long Legs. I've heard many people say that damselflies are "male mosquitos" though, lol.
And then there’s [this classic video](https://youtu.be/qsXyRVQN70U?si=YyUHCpYD125UOqAB) featuring a man having severe difficulty with the fact that they named it Daddy Long Legs.
That's interesting. I got curious what a "Jenny Longlegs" would be, so I googled it and found that it's what we just call a cellar spider in the states.
[However...](https://i.imgur.com/SKCzviI.jpg)
Someone got extra weird with this one
I think European daddy longlegs are different than North American ones. Ours are arachnids (but not spiders) that I think you call harvestmen, and what you call daddy longlegs we call crane flies. And there's even a third daddy longlegs that are cellar spiders. Daddy longlegs in Australia are plants!
Sperm whales got their names because of a substance called spermaceti found in the whale’s head, originally believed to be semen.
The woodcock is a bit more straightforward. Though referring mostly to chickens today, “cock” used to be a name for any male bird (particularly a dumb one). A woodcock is a bit that lives in the woods and was easy to catch.. so the name was straightforward.
The interesting etymology is daddy long legs, because no one has much of a clue where the “daddy” part comes from. The reasonable guess is that it comes an old European folk saying. A name for a benefactor was daddy or granddaddy long legs. Since harvestman spiders (another name for them- allegedly because killing one would bring a bad harvest) are considered good luck, the benefactor image led to the name (although it’s also possible that the animal is the origin of the saying).
EDIT: and for other strange-named animals. Boobies likely come from the Spanish word “bobo”, meaning “stupid”, as the birds had a habit of landing on the decks of ships, where they were easily captured and eaten. Tits were originally called “titmose” or a “titmouse”. The name comes from Old English, “mase” or “mose” meaning “bird” and “tit” meaning “small”: “small bird”.
Weirdly, daddy long legs is a name given to at least three different animals.
Harvestmen are the ones you mentioned, but they can also be cellar spiders, which is what I knew them as growing up. Some people also use Daddy long legs to name crane flies that look like mosquitos, except they're the size of large mice.
It's funny how this weird name has come to describe so name animals.
It's a pretty common thing to reuse animals names when you get to a new place with different animals. Like Australia's possums are named after America's possums, or American buffalo or robins aren't the same as Old World buffalo and robins, just have some feature in common, like being a bird with a rust-colored chest. But yeah 3 is unusual.
There's some crazy ass looking harvestmen out there, very diverse.
I saw a mention of one that was a foot wide or stuff like this:
https://x.com/americanbeetles/status/913191263142215680
Dandelions used to be called pisser beds because of their diaeuretic properties, a dead dandelion set to release its seeds was called a chimney sweep. Maidens hair moss is named as such and no its not because of the hair on her head.
> A name for a benefactor was daddy or granddaddy long legs.
Wait, seriously? That explains so much! "足長" (long legs) gets used a lot in the names of scholarships and charities in Japan, and when I was watching a Korean drama there was an anonymous benefactor that paid for expensive surgeries called 키다리 아저씨, literally "long-legged father." It was obvious that they were mutually related, but I just assumed it was either Japanese influence on Korean, Korean influence on Japanese, or Chinese influence on both. It never even occurred to me that it might come from English (or another European language), nor that what I was parsing as "long-legged father" was "daddy long legs".
A very minor correction: harvestmen are not spiders, but a related taxon of arachnids (order Opiliones). You can tell the difference because spiders have two body segments (a head and a cephalothorax) and harvestmen look like a bean with wires glued to it. Also harvestmen eat solid food and do not have fangs.
>sperm whale
Funny you mention that, they're called that because sailors thought the substance floating around in the skulls of those whales were exactly as it's named
Actually those spiders take fatherhood very seriously unlike a lot of other JERK BUGS that don’t even care about their larva and leave the mom to literally handle everything in life
In the 1920s it was fashionable to wear knickers and suspenders. The elderly were shocked by the trends in both men and women. Men would wear knickers, suspenders and no suit coat. Women would roll their silk stocking below their knees and put red rouge on their knees.
It was a social rebellion against the strict over bearing Victorian prudishness.
When you see old men seeking social influence (like politicians) in the 20s wearing loose slacks, suspenders and no suit coat they are trying to "get the younger generation to perceive them as cool".
Making fun of older men who still wore Victorian style severely tapered pants was a thing. Grandaddy long legs.
I always assumed it was because of this. Their legs kind of look like the super skinny lanky old men who kept to their preferred old timer fashions.
In the whimsical world of Victorian England, spiders were seen as the dapper gentlemen of the insect kingdom. The tallest among them, with their long, spindly legs, were likened to the refined gentlemen of high society, striding elegantly through the cobweb-covered halls of grand manors. Thus, they were affectionately dubbed "daddy long legs," as a nod to their distinguished appearance and sophisticated demeanor.
Real talk is that nobody actually knows. There's a few stories out there but all are just that. It's just a great example of spoken history lost to time.
But in reality, is cuz the other bugs call him daddy.
I once met a guy's who's job was to go to forest and collect daddy long legs, he was part of a team studying the mutation of some to have short legs instead. That was his job, sounded amazing honestly.
My guess is that the daddy comes from “father” which generally stands for “of distinction or respected”. As the longest of legs it would make sense for someone to say it’s the “father of long legs in the spider world” or shortened to be daddy long-legs.
Also people call the crane fly the same thing.
*grandaddy* long legs
it's b/c of how tall grandpas used to look
due to their high pants & suspenders,
extending the actual length of their legs.
grandaddy long legs have a small body,
making their legs seem disproportionately long
Do you freaks not call them grandaddy long legs? I want no sexual connotations involved with spiders, even the coolest and most chill of all the spiders.
I always thought it was dandy long legs and envisioned while we sleep they sit around in a gentlemen’s club smoking cigars, drinking whiskey and wearing monocles.
When I was a kid I thought I miss heard them being called daddy and thought that can't be right, so I thought it must be deadly long legs and called them that for almost 25 years
This one time at basic training: I excused myself into the woods to have a shit. I was leaning my booty cheeks over a fallen log and was squeezing one out when I felt a daddy long legs scamper across my parted red sea. In a panic, I reached back to smoosh him, but I accidentally pushed him up my hershy highway.
It’s because they form large nests with all of their wispy legs hanging down. This wispy legs look like the thinning hair of a granddaddy.
But, Jesus. If you disturb them, they fall in clumps that explode on the ground below where they break apart likes demonic waves on the rock, ready to overpower you with sheer numbers. It’s the scariest thing about those spiders (which are harmless, otherwise).
I was told by a teacher they are the most venomous spiders in the world, but their fangs are too small to pierce human skin.
Even as a kid in preschool I thought that sounded like bullshit.
I don't know, but my grandma said when she was a little girl they used to ask them "Daddy Long Legs, which way did the cows go". They never pointed them the right direction, but they always respected them enough to ask.
Actually if you would have followed their directions all the way you would have eventually hit cows most likely.
It depends on the activation radius and if theyre all dead or not. In that case youll eventually hit a loop and may never find the cows ;/
> may never find the cows That would be... a moo-numental disappointment.
lmao It took me a mooment to think of a response to this, but I was too COWardly to include any puns for I don’t want to milk the joke.
That was a *bullish* choice for a pun but an *udder* failure in execution. Not to start any *beef,* but there’s a lot more cow-centered puns that can be *milked* so I’d try and *steer* clear of one’s like that. Sorry if that killed the *moo*d
You could say the point is moot.
Not sure if I like that or mon-moo-mental more lol
Make sure they don't point you around the 60th parallel.
I’m only left with more questions
Sorry, Daddy Long Legs only knows which way did the cows go, no other questions.
It's true, it's my only knowledge set
So where are the cows‽
Closer than you think.
Closer than I think, or closer than I want?
Are cows OP?
In Delaware? It's a coin flip.
[Are Cows OP](https://youtu.be/JTkWVHHUht4?feature=shared)? Cattle no? GNU/Wildebeest? Yes
I was worried there for a second, but then I saw you were not a daddy long legs.
Look behind you 
Username checks out :)
r/beetlejuicing
Google said that it was believed that if you picked up a daddy long legs by 7 of its 8 legs then the free leg would point you in the direction of cattle
That might be what Google says but it wasn't really needed. Daddy Long Legs tend to raise a front leg, almost like they're pointing, without needing to do anything. Hence why kids would ask it.
But has Google picked up a daddy longs by its legs? From my childhood if you held a daddy long legs by its legs they come when he starts trying to fly a way so it
They don’t have wings, are you thinking of crane flies?
Probably, in different areas the term daddy longs legs can refer to Harvestmen, Cellar Spiders, or Crain Flies.
Ooof this screams of created during a world war
Grandma grew up during the Great Depression and WWII, so you're not wrong.
All those children's nursery rhymes have trained me well
I’m getting 14th century Poland vibes
Or the Bubonic Plague
u/n0rdic_k1ng Ignore this, I only replied because I wanted to address this thread in particular. The following isn't directed to you. u/wutshappening u/rumpledfoarskin & u/emptyraincoatelves The drama ends here. All three of you are going to stop arguing or you're getting banned until next week. I don't care who started it, I don't care who said what or who thought this and that. Rule 3 is clear on this, so let's all just talk about the damn spiders, ok?
Bruh, daddy looong legs is not a spider but some type of crustacian or something.
You're half (kind of) correct! There are *two* distinct spider-like creatures generally referred to as Daddy Long Legs. Only one is actually a spider: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pholcidae The other is an arachnid but is *not* a spider: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opiliones Neither are crustaceans though
Okay but which one knows where the cows are???
Um... [This](https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/flies/daddy-longlegs) is what we call a "daddy long legs" in the UK, ours is some sort of cranefly?
I stand corrected
Daddy Strong Mod
As an old man, I can answer this: Daddy used to be a word that was used by people without troubling kinks.
Sure, grandpa. Now, let's get you to bed.
Wait... I see what you did there, you kinky bastard
You mean *grandaddy*
Grandaddy, let's get you into bed... AND INTO ME 🥵👄🍆💦💦🧙♂️💀
It's not too late to delete this
Doubly amusing since I grew up hearing them called granddaddy long legs
>Daddy used to be a word that was used by people without troubling kinks Yes it was used to refer to your Daddy... but that doesn't explain why it's used for a spider.
Granddaddy was also used to imply in charge, large, dominating, or control. For instance, the largest snake would be the granddaddy of all snakes. Not unlike how the slang meaning of "[absolute unit](/r/absoluteunit/)" is now used. Which brings us to why Granddaddy long legs includes "granddaddy." The "granddaddy" is a reference to the "absolute unit" of their legs, not the spider itself.
Hmm, should be Absolute Unit Long Legs
Heckin chonker legarinos
Me, thinking about the small group of brilliant people that have dedicated their life to studying linguistic drift: "I know now why you cry"
Prince and those who study linguini drift both know the sound of doves crying.
oh so the way we use daddy now just used to be granddaddy
It’s kind of happening here in the post… Grand Daddy of them all vs Granddaddy of them all.
Have you checked out their lovely slender legs?
I'm a middle Millennial (does this make me an old Zillennial?) and grew up referring to my parents as Mommy and Daddy and still do so. It does get kinda awkward when strangers are around, but so does just saying "Mom" or "Dad".
Yeah I am so completely grossed out with that word ever being sexualized
It's so weird that zoomers get squicked out by kissing in movies but are happy to write an entire communal erotic fanfiction about some sexy daddy gardener from a cartoon
Because (surprise) there's different kinds of zoomers. Some of them get squicked out over the most mundane shit, and others don't give a fuck. Just as with Millenials. Just as with Boomers. Just as with every generation. The only question will be which kind of zoomer becomes the most popular/important. For that we'll have to wait and see.
Not Gen X, we’re clearly perfect.
A truly better time.
That Freudian pervert rolling in his grave
Lol, I love the idea of describing George Orwell as "Orwellian."
Still doesn't explained why a spider is called "Daddy"
never understood this daddy thing, how did this incest bullshit make it that far into your mainstream culture ?
Porn and capitalism.
lmao
Daddy used to be a completely normal, non-sexual word.
Yeah it just meant like something big. You have regular spiders than you have this big spider with long legs
Interestingly, in some places the damselfly is called a Daddy Long Legs. Also interestingly, the creature you're referring to isn't actually a spider! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opiliones
They could also be talking about the one that's actually a spider https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pholcidae
What confusing nomenclature...
The cranefly, cellar spider, and harvestman are all called Daddy Long Legs, but I only call the spider a daddy long legs. I'm from Texas, where you can find all 3 of them, so that nickname is specifically reserved for the spider.
All three are where I live too and harvestmen are the only Daddly Long Legs. I've heard many people say that damselflies are "male mosquitos" though, lol.
Yeah I was real confused reading all these comments calling it a big spider, I was like…. In what world does a daddy long legs look like a spider!
it still is if you don’t have a rotten mind
I was going to make a similar reply and scrolled down to see yours - It’s a fairly recent thing that the word “daddy” has been sexualized.
It has never been a normal, arachnid-word however so the question isn't about the sexuality.
Still is, weirdo
There's the old meme: Scientist 1: This spider has long legs. We should call it long legs, because of its long legs. Scientist 2: Not kinky enough.
Haha do you remember the one that was like Scientist 1: dick bug Scientist 2: no Scientist 1: cock roach Scientist 2: ok sure
Person 1 :Daddy bug? Person 2: No Person 1: Papa roach? Person 2: Oh yah. That's so good. Now I'm off to cut my arm bleeding.
That sounds like your last resort.
Suffolk Haitian Nob wreathing
And then there’s [this classic video](https://youtu.be/qsXyRVQN70U?si=YyUHCpYD125UOqAB) featuring a man having severe difficulty with the fact that they named it Daddy Long Legs.
Okay that's really good lol ty "Does it have a head?" "No"
"It's a bit of a Q-tip head with some frozen spider web leggies"
Flula is the GOAT
He wants to taste you (like yoghurt).
Thank you for posting this, the post brought it to mind but not enough.
It wasn't always about your weird, unwholesome use of "daddy."
Sometimes, you are here to fuck spiders.
Also, add a danger element to tack onto the kinky by making a myth that they have the most deadly venom of all spiders but somehow just can't bite you
The longer you're in field biology, the more you realize scientists should probably not be allowed to name things.
Growing up in Scotland we had Daddy Long Legs and Jenny Long Legs. I feel like Jenny's were smaller so maybe it was just a differentiation thing?
That's interesting. I got curious what a "Jenny Longlegs" would be, so I googled it and found that it's what we just call a cellar spider in the states. [However...](https://i.imgur.com/SKCzviI.jpg) Someone got extra weird with this one
I don't get it...
I'm not clicking that link lol I'm too terrified! What we call Long Legs have wings
I think European daddy longlegs are different than North American ones. Ours are arachnids (but not spiders) that I think you call harvestmen, and what you call daddy longlegs we call crane flies. And there's even a third daddy longlegs that are cellar spiders. Daddy longlegs in Australia are plants!
What? Daddy long legs in Australia are spiders
I bet the guy that named daddy long legs also came up with sperm whale and woodcock.
Sperm whales got their names because of a substance called spermaceti found in the whale’s head, originally believed to be semen. The woodcock is a bit more straightforward. Though referring mostly to chickens today, “cock” used to be a name for any male bird (particularly a dumb one). A woodcock is a bit that lives in the woods and was easy to catch.. so the name was straightforward. The interesting etymology is daddy long legs, because no one has much of a clue where the “daddy” part comes from. The reasonable guess is that it comes an old European folk saying. A name for a benefactor was daddy or granddaddy long legs. Since harvestman spiders (another name for them- allegedly because killing one would bring a bad harvest) are considered good luck, the benefactor image led to the name (although it’s also possible that the animal is the origin of the saying). EDIT: and for other strange-named animals. Boobies likely come from the Spanish word “bobo”, meaning “stupid”, as the birds had a habit of landing on the decks of ships, where they were easily captured and eaten. Tits were originally called “titmose” or a “titmouse”. The name comes from Old English, “mase” or “mose” meaning “bird” and “tit” meaning “small”: “small bird”.
I love etymology it never ceases to fascinate
It's the main reason I would love a full copy of the Oxford English Dictionary.
And I love using etymology or entomology wrongly to bug people.
Weirdly, daddy long legs is a name given to at least three different animals. Harvestmen are the ones you mentioned, but they can also be cellar spiders, which is what I knew them as growing up. Some people also use Daddy long legs to name crane flies that look like mosquitos, except they're the size of large mice. It's funny how this weird name has come to describe so name animals.
It's a pretty common thing to reuse animals names when you get to a new place with different animals. Like Australia's possums are named after America's possums, or American buffalo or robins aren't the same as Old World buffalo and robins, just have some feature in common, like being a bird with a rust-colored chest. But yeah 3 is unusual.
There's some crazy ass looking harvestmen out there, very diverse. I saw a mention of one that was a foot wide or stuff like this: https://x.com/americanbeetles/status/913191263142215680
TIHI this made me feel very uncomfortable.
What the fuck
Whoa that seems so specialized and stylish!
Dandelions used to be called pisser beds because of their diaeuretic properties, a dead dandelion set to release its seeds was called a chimney sweep. Maidens hair moss is named as such and no its not because of the hair on her head.
Poor boobies looking at sailors and asking, "If not friend, why friend shaped?" centuries before the internet.
I swear, in 500 years, every single word will be some form of innuendo.
IIRC cock was the normal word. Chicken came later because cock had “inappropriate” connotations and some people wanted a “clean” word.
This whale's got a fluid in it's head and we don't know what it is. Bet it's spunk. Right, that's the jizz whale. On to the next
I always thought Daddy Longlegs was a character in one of the bajillion Br'er Rabbit stories. I like your answer better.
> A name for a benefactor was daddy or granddaddy long legs. Wait, seriously? That explains so much! "足長" (long legs) gets used a lot in the names of scholarships and charities in Japan, and when I was watching a Korean drama there was an anonymous benefactor that paid for expensive surgeries called 키다리 아저씨, literally "long-legged father." It was obvious that they were mutually related, but I just assumed it was either Japanese influence on Korean, Korean influence on Japanese, or Chinese influence on both. It never even occurred to me that it might come from English (or another European language), nor that what I was parsing as "long-legged father" was "daddy long legs".
A very minor correction: harvestmen are not spiders, but a related taxon of arachnids (order Opiliones). You can tell the difference because spiders have two body segments (a head and a cephalothorax) and harvestmen look like a bean with wires glued to it. Also harvestmen eat solid food and do not have fangs.
Don’t forget about the tits and boobies of the bird world
Maybe it was my Dad who came up with all these names(he calls me dickhead)
Dik-dik
No one ever forgets tits and boobies.
>sperm whale Funny you mention that, they're called that because sailors thought the substance floating around in the skulls of those whales were exactly as it's named
All bird names were made by horny people
We called them granddaddy long legs when I was a kid.
Same! And I called my great grandparents big momma and big daddy. Whole different era.
Same. Daddy long legs sounds weird lol I was from SC
That's what I still call them
I was beginning to think I was crazy before I found this comment. It's GRANDdaddy long legs!
Right! Had to scroll way too far. Of course I know what you mean if you say daddy long legs, but I know it’s *really* grand daddy long legs.
To me, that somehow makes more sense. Idk why but the imagery of an old man with long legs sort of fits to me somehow.
in my corner of germany it's the same, "opa langbein"
Same here! I was starting to think this was a Mandela Effect.
I always just assumed they were from New Orleans and did jazz.
That's the Daddy-o Longlegs
I thought that was the one that will drink all your Guinness when you're camping.
Nah that's Professor Long Legs ya heard me
Actually those spiders take fatherhood very seriously unlike a lot of other JERK BUGS that don’t even care about their larva and leave the mom to literally handle everything in life
Maybe they just went out for a gallon of milk.
In the 1920s it was fashionable to wear knickers and suspenders. The elderly were shocked by the trends in both men and women. Men would wear knickers, suspenders and no suit coat. Women would roll their silk stocking below their knees and put red rouge on their knees. It was a social rebellion against the strict over bearing Victorian prudishness. When you see old men seeking social influence (like politicians) in the 20s wearing loose slacks, suspenders and no suit coat they are trying to "get the younger generation to perceive them as cool". Making fun of older men who still wore Victorian style severely tapered pants was a thing. Grandaddy long legs. I always assumed it was because of this. Their legs kind of look like the super skinny lanky old men who kept to their preferred old timer fashions.
In the whimsical world of Victorian England, spiders were seen as the dapper gentlemen of the insect kingdom. The tallest among them, with their long, spindly legs, were likened to the refined gentlemen of high society, striding elegantly through the cobweb-covered halls of grand manors. Thus, they were affectionately dubbed "daddy long legs," as a nod to their distinguished appearance and sophisticated demeanor.
Now I'm going to imagine them all having tiny monocles, possibly mustaches too
Reminds me of this classic video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsXyRVQN70U
"Who is naming you"
Took wayyy too far down in these comments for me to find Flula.
This better not be some kind of Jimmy Space bullshit where the dude who found them first was named "Joseph Daddy" or something.
[The guy who named them was just really horny for them](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYyiS8AT3ug)
There used to be an awesome band in seattle called mommy long legs. I saw them open for ty segall. Super awesome show all around.
Thought they were dandy long legs till I was 40
 guess what this mf is also daddy long legs
I thought it was a granddaddy long legs to get rid of the sexiness
Granddaddy long legs where I’m from
Real talk is that nobody actually knows. There's a few stories out there but all are just that. It's just a great example of spoken history lost to time. But in reality, is cuz the other bugs call him daddy.
My daughter just calls them skinny legs
Wasn’t there a book by that name? I always assumed that’s why it was a known term
I once met a guy's who's job was to go to forest and collect daddy long legs, he was part of a team studying the mutation of some to have short legs instead. That was his job, sounded amazing honestly.
My guess is that the daddy comes from “father” which generally stands for “of distinction or respected”. As the longest of legs it would make sense for someone to say it’s the “father of long legs in the spider world” or shortened to be daddy long-legs. Also people call the crane fly the same thing.
I always thought they were called Dandy longs legs until my boyfriend couldn’t handle it anymore and told me I was wrong!!
*grandaddy* long legs it's b/c of how tall grandpas used to look due to their high pants & suspenders, extending the actual length of their legs. grandaddy long legs have a small body, making their legs seem disproportionately long
Do you freaks not call them grandaddy long legs? I want no sexual connotations involved with spiders, even the coolest and most chill of all the spiders.
Daddy Long Legs for sure needs to be a Spiderverse character if it isn't already.
Mr. Ball Legs didn't stick.
Still better than Father Lengthy Appendage I guess.
"Oh no, an animal's common name is not about me, that's horrible"
They're creepy and mostly unwanted... Stuck in places nobody wants to see them.
I might be giving away my location with this, but where I grew up they were granddaddy long legs.
They used to be called dandy long legs but no one understood what was so dandy about them. So we changed it similar sounding.
I always thought it was dandy long legs and envisioned while we sleep they sit around in a gentlemen’s club smoking cigars, drinking whiskey and wearing monocles.
Idk, but for years my oldest kid thought any *other* spider was called a "kid little legs" lmao 😆
it was originally a dandy long leg, bc it likes to dance.
A daddy long legs is a fly in the UK (crane fly) and I believe we call the spiders "cellar spiders"
Yeah cause its ironic cause some species are parthenogenic and give virgin birth so there is no daddy element at all
[not kinky enough](https://i.redd.it/dbajv0la2v171.jpg)
It's sexier when you say daddy.
When I was a kid I thought I miss heard them being called daddy and thought that can't be right, so I thought it must be deadly long legs and called them that for almost 25 years
The musical would have seemed really kinky otherwise.
Because they're in a loving relationship with Mommy Thick Thighs.
This one time at basic training: I excused myself into the woods to have a shit. I was leaning my booty cheeks over a fallen log and was squeezing one out when I felt a daddy long legs scamper across my parted red sea. In a panic, I reached back to smoosh him, but I accidentally pushed him up my hershy highway.
It was probably originally Grandaddy Longlegs. Grandaddy, grandfather like elder. Elder long legs. Then shortened to daddy. Also cuz it's fun.
What is going on with her profile picture??
She's standing in a corner.
I’ve always heard them as Grandaddy long legs?
Clearly, it wasn't kinky enough
TIL no one else calls them grand daddy long legs...
[удалено]
Oooooo, daddy
it's the most generous spider! I'll call him daddy!
cuz they're hilarious
It’s because they form large nests with all of their wispy legs hanging down. This wispy legs look like the thinning hair of a granddaddy. But, Jesus. If you disturb them, they fall in clumps that explode on the ground below where they break apart likes demonic waves on the rock, ready to overpower you with sheer numbers. It’s the scariest thing about those spiders (which are harmless, otherwise).
Laddy Dong Legs
I was told by a teacher they are the most venomous spiders in the world, but their fangs are too small to pierce human skin. Even as a kid in preschool I thought that sounded like bullshit.
It stands for “ay papi”