Orgins of "Licking Into Shape" 🐻

 

Pliny the Elder coined that phrase:

hi sunt candida informisque caro, paulo muribus maior, sine oculis, sine pilo; ungues tantum prominent. hanc lambendo paulatim figurant.

These are shapeless white flesh, a little bigger than mice, with no eyes or hair; their claws alone prominent. They [= the mothers] lick them gradually into shape.

AoSHQ: Morning Report 03.24.23