cuscus meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

cuscus

noun

/ˈkʌs.kəs/ · /ˈkuːs.kuːs/

Etymology From New Latin Cuscus, former genus name, ultimately (probably via French and Dutch koeskoes) from a local word for the marsupials in a language of the Moluccas.

Any arboreal marsupial of most genera of the family Phalangeridae, native to northern Australia, New Guinea, and Indonesia.

Without eggs, cocoa-nuts, or plantains, we had very short commons, and the boisterous weather being unpropitious for fishing, we had to live on what few eatable birds we could shoot, with an occasional cuscus, or eastern opossum, the only quadruped, except pigs, inhabiting the island.1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 357:

Derived terms: 26 terms
Admiralty Island cuscus, Australian spotted cuscus, Banggai cuscus, black-spotted cuscus, blue-eyed cuscus, blue-eyed spotted cuscus, common spotted cuscus, eastern common cuscus, Gebe cuscus, gray cuscus, ground cuscus, mountain cuscus, northern common cuscus, ornate cuscus, Rothschild's cuscus, silky cuscus, southern common cuscus, spotted cuscus, Stein's cuscus, Sulawesi bear cuscus, Sulawesi dwarf cuscus, Talaud bear cuscus, Telefomin cuscus, Waigeou cuscus, Waigeou spotted cuscus, Woodlark cuscus