raccoon

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See also: Raccoon

English

WOTD – 23 June 2010
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
A common raccoon (Procyon lotor).
A raccoon raiding a bird feeder at night.

Alternative forms

Etymology

From arocoun (1608), from Powhatan ärähkun, from ärähkuněm (“he scratches with his hands”).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ɹəˈkuːn/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ɹæˈkun/, /ɹəˈkun/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Audio (AU)(file)
  • Rhymes: -uːn

Noun

raccoon (plural raccoons)

  1. An omnivorous, nocturnal mammal native to North America, typically with a mixture of gray, brown, and black fur, a mask-like marking around the eyes and a striped tail; Procyon lotor.
    • 1624, John Smith, The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles: , London: I D and I H for Michael Sparkes, →OCLC, (please specify |book=1 to 6); reprinted in The Generall Historie of Virginia, (Bibliotheca Americana), Cleveland, Oh.: The World Publishing Company, 1966, →OCLC:
      Before a fire upon a seat like a bedsted, he sat covered with a great robe, made of Rarowcun skinnes, and all the tayles hanging by.
    • 1634, William Wood, “Of the Beasts that Live on the Land”, in New Englands Prospect. A True, Lively, and Experimentall Description of that Part of America, Commonly Called New England; , London: Tho Cotes, for Iohn Bellamie, , →OCLC, 1st part, page 22:
      The Rackoone is a deepe furred beaſt, not much unlike a Badger, having a tayle like a Fox, as good meate as a Lambe; there is one of them in the Tovver.
    • 2010 April 3, Charlie Brooker, “Screen Burn”, in The Guardian:
      Thus we're presented with […] a man who has the head of his penis bitten off by a raccoon, then bleeds to death in a forest.
  2. Any mammal of the genus Procyon.
  3. Any mammal of the subfamily Procyoninae, a procyonine.
  4. Any mammal of the family Procyonidae, a procyonid.
  5. (loosely, proscribed) Any mammal superficially resembling a raccoon, such as a raccoon dog.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

See also: Raccoon
northern raccoon range

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