[woo
d-chuhk] 
| a stocky North American burrowing rodent, Marmota monax, that hibernates in the winter. |
| wood·chuck (wŏŏd'chŭk') n. A common burrowing rodent (Marmota monax) of northern and eastern North America, having a short-legged, heavy-set body and grizzled brownish fur. Also called groundhog; also called regionally whistle pig. [By folk etymology, probably of New England Algonquian origin.] The woodchuck goes by several names in the United States. The most famous of these is groundhog, under which name all the legends about the animal's hibernation have accrued. In the Appalachian Mountains the woodchuck is known as a whistle pig. The word woodchuck is probably a folk etymology of a New England Algonquian word—that is, English-speaking settlers "translated" the Indian word into a compound of two words that made sense to them in light of the animal's habitat. |