Quote:
Originally Posted by doubleshuffle
Stuffed cats are still okay, as long as they don't stink. Cloth cats are also fine.
But now, as a non-native speaker of English, I'm curious: I'm pretty sure that I have seen and heard toy animals (like tiger Hobbes from the great Calvin and Hobbes cartoons) referred to as stuffed animals. I've always found it weird, for in German an ausgestopftes Tier is the hide of a real animal stuffed with sawdust or something like that for display in a museum, for instance.
So what's the deal with stuffed animals in English?
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The same word is used for both things. Context and the use of some key indicator words will decide the meaning. Stuffed
toys will be made of cloth or fake fur fabric. It's a subtle difference, but a reference to, for example, a stuffed bear, would usually mean something that's made from an actual bear by taxidermy, unless the conversation was already about stuffed toys or indicated that toys were intended.
"I had a stuffed bear when I was little" would almost always refer to a teddy bear - a toy bear. But the slight ambiguity could certainly be used to make a joke.
"I had a stuffed bear when I was little...
... father was so proud of my first hunting kill, he had it stuffed for me."
I win.