Originally published at: Why is this salamander called a "hellbender?" You might regret knowing the answer | Boing Boing
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Please lay off the click bait. Why is this salamander called a hellbender? is never answered.
If you live near the Detroit Zoo (located in Royal Oak), hellbenders are on display in the Amphibian House. Very nice exhibit.
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In middle school one of the science teachers had a hellbender called “The Judge”. His class would occasionally raid the classrooms that only had goldfish to collect tribute for The Judge.
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Why would we regret knowing the answer?
In fact, I’d like to know the answer.
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I too wanted to know. Unfortunately there may be no answer
No one is sure how they got their name, but one theory is that fishermen named them hellbenders because they look “like they crawled out of hell and are bent on going back.”
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For what it’s worth, I have a friend whose PhD in herpetology involved a dissertation about the mating habits of this critter. He told me the best guess was “hellbender” was an anglicized version of the Amish/German word for them, though I don’t recall what that word might’ve been.
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The Snot Otters is the name of my gothabilly band.
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Do I get a cut of Avatar: The Airbender where there are also Hellraiser characters? Or just that’s the feeling when the slime sticks to you and the critter doesn’t speak to you offering magical powers?
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But the German word for salamander is… Salamander.
Although - this one is considerable larger than anything anyone coming to America would be familiar with from Europe. So coining a phrase along the lines of “Ausgeburt der Hölle” seems plausible.
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Worst. Appa. Ever.
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Beat me to it. I was going to suggest “Hellbender and the Snot Otters” but, either way, I’d go to see them.
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Wild conjecture about naming a salamander “hellbender”: the very name ‘salamander’ has to do with the (rather odd) mythical notion that they can survive fire with no effect.
salamander (n.) mid-14c., salamandre, “legendary lizard-like creature supposed to live in fire,” from Old French salamandre “legendary fiery beast,” also “cricket” (12c.), from Latin salamandra, from Greek salamandra, a kind of lizard supposed to be an extinguisher of fire, a word probably of eastern origin or, as per Beekes, of Pre-Greek origin.
so, if you’ve already got a creature (possibly originally a different species altogether) reputed to survive the flames then “hellbender” could be an old easy nickname. maybe. It’s also why the “Firemen” in Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 wear a salamander insignia.
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Well, “hell” means bright and “bender” is the same as in English, but I think that the Amish speak a kind of old-timey regional dialect of German, so who knows.
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My only regret is not knowing the answer.
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8.6/10 on IMDB
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My guess is it’s just a cool name to call things.
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and the op actually said that - so 
While Ed Beaulieu didn’t answer the question, after reading about hellbenders, I do believe that this is one. I learned that they are the biggest salamander in North America—they can grow up to 2 ½ feet and weigh up to 5 pounds. They can also live for several decades…
the video was clearly a jumping off point, not an end in itself, because the author thinks hellbenders are a wonderful thing
i see no problem with any of that at all
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Why is post title written as clickbait? You might be underwhelmed finding out.
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and @knappa ”the Amish speak a kind of old-timey regional dialect of German,”
I don’t remember the specifics but it was definitely not a literal German translation to English. More a colloquial term from the Amish-German dialect that to them meant “WTF is this slimy sea monster?!” and the local English speakers interpreted as “hellbender.”
These are the same local English speakers who think the Amish are Dutch because they called themselves Deutsche, and who think “Ponksad Utay Anay,” my clumsy English spelling of the Algonquin term for “land of the biting sand fleas,” meant Punxsutawney, “land of the prognosticating groundhog.”
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I prefer it the other way around: “Snot Otter and the Hellbenders”
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Not to be confused with the popular movie “Snot Otter vs. Hellbender”, a wacky snot-filled buddy comedy heist caper that wowed multiplex audiences in the summer of '89.
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