ichneumon

[ik-noo-muhn, -nyoo-]

noun

1. Also called African mongoose. Also called Egyptian mongoose. a slender, long-tailed mongoose, Herpestes ichneumon, inhabiting Africa and southern Europe, and believed by the ancient Egyptians to devour crocodile eggs.

2. ichneumon fly.

ichneumon

/ ɪkˈnjuːmən /

noun

1. a mongoose, Herpestes ichneumon, of Africa and S Europe, having greyish-brown speckled fur

Word History and Origins

Origin of ichneumon¹

1565–75; < Latin < Greek ichneúmōn tracker, equivalent to ichneú ( ein ) to track ( ichno- ) + -mōn agent suffix

Word History and Origins

Origin of ichneumon¹

C16: via Latin from Greek, literally: tracker, hunter, from ikhneuein to track, from ikhnos a footprint; so named from the animal's alleged ability to locate the eggs of crocodiles

Example Sentences

They also displayed two mummies of ichneumon, or the Egyptian mongoose, wrapped in linen bandages and wooden and tin-glazed statuettes of the goddess Sekhmet, represented as a woman with the head of a lioness.

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The ichneumon wasp was a challenge to Darwin’s already diminishing faith.

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And though it isn’t a beetle, the elegant pipe cleaner, an ichneumon wasp, looks as if it’s preening for its first portrait as a principal ballet dancer.

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The ichneumon wasps are known for laying their eggs in the larvae of other insects, or even in a paralyzed adult, so that their offspring can hatch and feed on the living host.

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The Kimberly diamond mines are said to have been disclosed by the burrowings of an ichneumon, which fetched a brilliant stone to the sunlight.

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