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viscacha

or viz·ca·cha

[vi-skah-chuh]
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noun
  1. a burrowing rodent, Lagostomus maximus, about the size of a groundhog, inhabiting the pampas of Paraguay and Argentina, allied to the chinchilla.
  2. Also called mountain viscacha. a related rodent of the genus Lagidium, of the Andes, about the size of a squirrel, having rabbitlike ears and a squirrellike tail.
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Origin of viscacha

1595–1605; < Spanish < Quechua wisk’acha
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for viscacha

Historical Examples

  • The fur of the viscacha is not so pretty, being of a brownish and white mixture.

    The Forest Exiles

    Mayne Reid

  • In many forms this part of the sternum is much broader than the pieces which follow; this is so with the Viscacha.

  • There the biscacha, or viscacha—as it is indifferently spelt—plays pretty much the same part as the rabbit in our northern lands.

  • Closely related to the chinchilla is the viscacha, which is found very abundantly in the great pampas districts of South America.

British Dictionary definitions for viscacha

viscacha

vizcacha

noun
  1. a gregarious burrowing hystricomorph rodent, Lagostomus maximus, of southern South America, similar to but larger than the chinchillas: family Chinchillidae
  2. mountain viscacha the mountain chinchillaSee chinchilla (def. 3)
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Word Origin

C17: from Spanish, from Quechuan wiskácha
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012