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opossum

 [uh-pos-uhm, pos-uhm]   Example Sentences Origin

o·pos·sum

   [uh-pos-uhm, pos-uhm]
noun, plural -sums, (especially collectively) -sum.
1.
a prehensile-tailed marsupial, Didelphis virginiana, of the eastern U.S., the female having an abdominal pouch in which its young are carried: noted for the habit of feigning death when in danger.
2.
any of various animals of related genera.
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Compare possum.

Origin:
1600–10, Americanism; < Virginia Algonquian (E spelling) opassom, opussum, aposoum (equivalent to Proto-Algonquian *wa˙p- white + *-aʔθemw- dog)
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Opossum is always a great word to know.
So is zedonk. Does it mean:
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.
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Example Sentences
  • In a slender crushed velvet dress the border can be either opossum or fox.
  • Most of it is deer, but occasionally you get an opossum or cat.
  • Sea monster mamas, bat signals and opossum versus viper.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
opossum (əˈpɒsəm)
 
—n , pl -sums, -sum
1.  Sometimes (informal) shortened to: possum any thick-furred marsupial, esp Didelphis marsupialis (common opossum), of the family Didelphidae of S North, Central, and South America, having an elongated snout and a hairless prehensile tail
2.  Also called (Austral and NZ): possum any of various similar animals, esp the phalanger, Trichosurus vulpecula, of the New Zealand bush
 
[C17: from Algonquian aposoum; related to Delaware apässum, literally: white beast]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

opossum
1610, from Powhatan (Algonquian) apasum "white animal."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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