- 1獴（口語也常說貓鼬； Strictly 狐獴是 meerkat，和獴不完全是同一種）
A mongoose is a small, quick, furry animal from warm parts of Africa and Asia. It has a long body, a pointed face, and a tail, and it is famous for killing snakes — and rats too. People tell stories of a mongoose dancing around a cobra. It is not a kind of goose, even though the end of the word looks like goose. English speakers heard a foreign name and spelled it as if it belonged with goose; that is a folk story in the letters, not a real family link. The word came into English in the 1690s from Portuguese manguço, from Marathi in India, and further back from languages. Old English once had its own name, nǣderbita, 'snake-biter,' but mongoose took its place. You meet it in nature films and in Kipling's Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. It is countable: one mongoose, two mongooses. Some people joke 'mongeese,' copying geese, but that is not the usual plural.
組成Borrowed from Portuguese manguço, from Marathi मुंगूस (muṅgūs), from Old Marathi, ultimately Dravidian (compare Telugu muṅgisa), from Proto-Dravidian *mūnkūc- ('mongoose'). Spelling pulled toward goose by folk etymology. Replaced Old English nǣderbita ('snake biter').
原始詞典資料2 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
mongoosenoun/ˈmɒŋ.ɡuːs/
- 1
Any of several species of generalist predatory carnivores in the family Herpestidae; the various species range in size from rats to large cats. Indian mongooses are predators of venomous snakes, though other mongoose species have similar habits.
- After the mongoose had satisfied its appetite, we proceeded to examine with a pocket lens the wounds he had received from the cobra; and on cleansing one of these places, the lens disclosed the broken fang of the cobra deeply imbedded in the head of the mongoose... We have had the mongoose confined ever since (now four days' time), and it is as healthy and lively as ever.
- He was a mongoose, rather like a little cat in his fur and his tail, but quite like a weasel in his head and his habits.
- 2
Any members of family Eupleridae of Malagasy mongooses, only distantly related to the Herpestidae, but resembling them in appearance and habits, with larger ears and ringed tails.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。