musquash

American  

[muhs-kwosh] / ˈmʌs kwɒʃ /

noun

1. Chiefly British. the fur of the muskrat.

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musquash British  

/ ˈmʌskwɒʃ /

noun

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

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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

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

From Time Magazine Archive

This is to prevent the musquash from running out to deep water.

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

But the old musquash avoided the path, as if he had suffered in such places before.

From A Little Brother to the Bear and other Animal Stories by Long, William J. (William Joseph)

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

Equally curious with these are his descriptions of the “beasts living in the water,” as the otter, musquash, &c., and of “the birds and fowls, both of land and water.”

From Curiosities of History Boston, September Seventeenth, 1630-1880 by Wheildon, William W.