lynx
/lɪŋks/ noun, proper noun
Forms lynxes
- noun Any of several medium-sized wild cats of the genus Lynx.
- proper noun (astronomy) A faint spring constellation of the northern sky. It lies north of the constellation Cancer.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English lynx, linx, lenx, lynce, from Latin lynx, from Ancient Greek λύγξ (lúnx), from Proto-Hellenic *lúnks, from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“white; light; bright”), because of the cat's seemingly glowing eyes and ability to see in the dark. Doublet of onza and ounce.
Displaced English los; Middle English lusk (“lynx”), from Old English lox (“lynx”) as the animal died out in Britain during the Middle Ages.
From Latin lynx (“lynx”). Named by the astronomer Johannes Hevelius in 1687. The constellation is said to be so faint that one needs the eyes of a lynx to see it.
Webster’s 1913
- noun Any one of several species of feline animals of the genus Felis, and subgenus Lynx. They have a short tail, and usually a pencil of hair on the tip of the ears.
- noun One of the northern constellations.
Etymology [L. lynx, lyncis, Gr. lox, G. luchs, prob. named from its sharp sight, and akin to E. light. See Light, n., and cf. Ounce an animal.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “lynx”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details