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

"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

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

The spearing of the musquash is done in this wise: The rats throw up little mud-cone lodges, or houses, out from the shore, in about a foot of water.

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

This reserved skin may be only a musquash.

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