muskrat
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Writing a short explanation…
Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
muskrat
- /ˈmʌskɹæt/
Where it comes from
Perhaps so called for its musky odour and because it resembles a rat, or perhaps called by an Algonquian name like the Abenaki moskwas, with the spelling altered under the influence of the English words musk and rat.
noun muskrats · musk-rat
- A semiaquatic rodent of the tribe Ondatrini. 1865, Henry David Thoreau, Cape Cod, Chapter IX. "The Sea and the Desert", page 187. He also said that minks, muskrats, foxes, coons, and wild mice were found there, but no squirrels.
- Any of several shrews in the family Soricidae, especially an Asian house shrew (Suncus murinus).
- A bandicoot rat.
