musquash

American  

[muhs-kwosh] / ˈmʌs kwɒʃ /

noun

1. Chiefly British. the fur of the muskrat.

---

musquash British  

/ ˈmʌskwɒʃ /

noun

1. another name for muskrat , used esp to refer to its fur

---

Etymology

Origin of musquash

1770–80, < Massachusett cognate of Western Abenaki mòskwas (perhaps equivalent to Proto-Algonquian *mo·ŝk- bobbing above the surface of the water + *-exkwe· head + derivational elements, i.e., the one whose head bobs above the water)

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

musquash

In Great Britain a musquash pelt is worth only about a shilling.

From Time Magazine Archive

At times, when there are a number of musquash in the same lodge at the same time, the spear often passes through two, or even three, at one stroke.

From Canadian Wilds Tells About the Hudson's Bay Company, Northern Indians and Their Modes of Hunting, Trapping, Etc. by Hunter, Martin

"While we were facing starvation, why stewed musquash sounded right good to us; but with a whole carcass of venison on our hands it's plain muskrat again; and there you are, Lil Artha."

From Storm-Bound or, A Vacation Among the Snow Drifts by Douglas, Alan

Each skin, apart from the musquash, was as clean as note paper, all killed in season and all dried in the frost or shade.

From Canadian Wilds Tells About the Hudson's Bay Company, Northern Indians and Their Modes of Hunting, Trapping, Etc. by Hunter, Martin

The Rodentia include beavers, nutrias, musk-rats or musquash, marmots, hamsters, chinchillas, hares, rabbits, squirrels, &c.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 3 "Frost" to "Fyzabad" by Various