palm civet

noun

1. any of various small to medium-sized, chiefly arboreal cats of the civet family, of southeastern Asia, the East Indies, etc., with a spotted or striped coat and a long curled tail.

palm civet

noun

1. any of various small civet-like arboreal viverrine mammals of the genera Paradoxurus, Hemigalus, etc, of Africa and S and SE Asia

Word History and Origins

Origin of palm civet¹

First recorded in 1840–50

Example Sentences

SARS, for example, originated in bats and then infected a palm civet, a catlike mammal native to South and Southeast Asia.

From Time

There are ten or eleven different kinds of these animals, the commonest of which is the Indian palm-civet.

From Project Gutenberg