polecat

English

A marbled polecat (weasel-like animal).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈpɔlkæt/

Etymology

From Middle French pole (“hen”) +‎ cat. So named because of its fondness for poultry.

Wikipedia

Noun

polecat (plural polecats)

1. a weasel-like animal of the genus Mustela, notably the European polecat, Mustela putorius.
2. (US regional): a skunk

Quotations

• 1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 61

  By the little garden pergola open to the winds some fluttered peacocks were blotted nervelessly amid the dripping trees, their heads sunk back beneath their wings: while in the pergoda itself, like a fallen storm-cloud, lolled a negress, her levelled, polecat eyes semi-veiled by the nebulous alchemy of the rainbow.

Derived terms

• marbled polecat
• steppe polecat
• striped polecat
• European polecat

Translations

Mustela putorius

Albanian: qelbësi (sq) Armenian: ժանտաքիս (hy) (žantak'is) Basque: ipurtats Belarusian: тхор лясны/ чорны Bosnian: tvor (bs) m. Breton: pudask Bulgarian: прът (pr"t) Catalan: turó Croatian: tvor (hr) Czech: tchoř (cs) m. Danish: ilder (da) Dutch: bunzing (nl) m. Esperanto: putoro Estonian: tuhkur Finnish: hilleri (fi) French: putois (fr) m. Friulian: puçul, pufe, pudîs, spuç Galician: tourón German: Iltis (de) m. Greek: οζοϊκτίς (el), βρωμοκούναβο (el) Hungarian: görény (hu) Irish: cat coille (ga) m., toghán (ga) m. Italian: puzzola (it) f. Latgalian: saskys m. Latin: mustella (la) Latvian: sesks

Lithuanian: šeškas (lt) Lower Sorbian: twoŕ Macedonian: обичен твор (običen tvor) Norwegian: ilder (no) Occitan: catpudre Polish: tchórz (pl) Portuguese: toirăo Romani: mutsa-kandini f. Romanian: dihor Romansch: telpi Russian: хорёк (ru) (hor'ók) m., хорь (ru) (hor') m. Sami: čáhppesbuoidda Sardinian: pùtzola Scottish Gaelic: feòcallan Serbian: твор (-мрки) (tvor (-mrki)) Slovak: tchor obyčajný Slovene: dihur (sl) m. Spanish: turón (es) m. Swedish: iller (sv) Turkish: kokarca (tr) Ukrainian: тхiр лiсовий (thir lisovij), чорний (čornij) Upper Sorbian: tchór Walloon: vexhåd (wa) Welsh: ffwlbart West Frisian: murd

skunk — see skunk

Synonyms

• fitch
• foumart
• skunk (US, regional)

Anagrams

• colpate