muskrat
MUHSK-rat · noun
AbenakiEnglish
Origin
The word may simply describe the animal's musky odor combined with its rat-like appearance. Alternatively, it may come from an Algonquian word like the Abenaki 'moskwas,' which English speakers reshaped to sound like the familiar words 'musk' and 'rat.'
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Related words
The name may be linked by folk etymology to the English words 'musk' and 'rat,' even if its true root lies in an Algonquian language like Abenaki.