cougar
[ koo-ger ]
/ ˈku gər /
noun, plural cou·gars, (especially collectively) cou·gar.
Also called mountain lion, panther, puma. a large, tawny cat, Felis concolor, of North and South America: now greatly reduced in number and endangered in some areas.
Informal. an older woman who seeks sexual relationships with much younger men: He's in his twenties, but he prefers cougars in their forties and fifties to young women his own age.
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Nearby words
coudé, coudé focus, coudé telescope, couette flow, cougan, cougar, cougar bait, cough, cough drop, cough medicine, cough mixture
Origin of cougar
1765–75; < French couguar (Buffon) < New Latin cuguacu ara, apparently a misrepresentation of Guarani guaçu ara
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for cougar
British Dictionary definitions for cougar
cougar
/ (ˈkuːɡə) /
noun
another name for puma
US and Canadian slang a woman in her 30s or 40s who actively pursues casual sexual relationships with young men
Word Origin for cougar
C18: from French couguar, from Portuguese cuguardo, from Tupi suasuarana, literally: deerlike, from suasú deer + rana similar to
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for cougar
cougar
1774, from French couguar, Buffon's adaption (influenced by jaguar) of a word the Portuguese picked up in Brazil as çuçuarana, perhaps from Tupi susuarana, from suasu "deer" + rana "false." Another proposed source is Guarani guaçu ara. Evidently the cedillas dropped off the word before Buffon got it. Slang sense of "older woman (35-plus) who seeks younger males as sex partners" is attested by 2002; said in some sources to have originated in Canada, probably from some reference to predatory feline nature.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper