raccoon

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See also: Raccoon

English

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A common raccoon (Procyon lotor).
A raccoon raiding a bird feeder at night.

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From arocoun (1608), from Powhatan ärähkun, from ärähkuněm (he scratches with his hands).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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raccoon (plural raccoons)

  1. An omnivorous, nocturnal mammal native to North America, typically with a mixture of gray, brown, and black fur, a mask-like marking around the eyes and a striped tail; Procyon lotor.
    • 1624, Iohn Smith, The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles: [], London: [] I[ohn] D[awson] and I[ohn] H[aviland] for Michael Sparkes, →OCLC, (please specify |book=1 to 6); reprinted in The Generall Historie of Virginia, [...] (Bibliotheca Americana), Cleveland, Oh.: The World Publishing Company, 1966, →OCLC:
      Before a fire upon a seat like a bedsted, he sat covered with a great robe, made of Rarowcun skinnes, and all the tayles hanging by.
    • 1634, William Wood, “Of the Beasts that Live on the Land”, in New Englands Prospect. A True, Lively, and Experimentall Description of that Part of America, Commonly Called New England; [], London: [] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Bellamie, [], →OCLC, 1st part, page 22:
      The Rackoone is a deepe furred beaſt, not much unlike a Badger, having a tayle like a Fox, as good meate as a Lambe; there is one of them in the Tovver.
    • 2010 April 3, Charlie Brooker, “Screen Burn”, in The Guardian:
      Thus we're presented with [] a man who has the head of his penis bitten off by a raccoon, then bleeds to death in a forest.
  2. Any mammal of the genus Procyon.
  3. Any mammal of the subfamily Procyoninae, a procyonine.
  4. Any mammal of the family Procyonidae, a procyonid.
  5. (loosely, proscribed) Any mammal superficially resembling a raccoon, such as a raccoon dog.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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See also: Raccoon
northern raccoon range

Anagrams

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