woodchuck
/ˈwʊd.t͡ʃʌk/ noun
Forms woodchucks
- noun (Northern US) A rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots, Marmota monax.
Synonyms
Etymology
Folk-etymological adaption of Cree ocêk, otchek (“fisher”), Ojibwe ojiig (“fisher, marten”), or a similar term in a related Algonquian language, subsequently reapplied to the groundhog.
An earlier form of this word, woodshock, still sometimes designates the marten. Also a doublet of wejack.
Webster’s 1913
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “woodchuck”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details