cougar

[prettygoodword]

The next group of South American languages that English snaffled vocabulary from is Tupian, in particular Old (aka Classical) Tupi and Guaraní. The former was originally spoken in southeastern coastal Brazil and then spread inland by colonial Portuguese as a widely spoken lingua franca (including by speakers of other Tupian languages through the rest of Brazil) that’s now used only in one restricted region, while the latter was and remains a majority language of Paraguay (the other being Spanish) and immediate adjacent lands. Most of what I’m posting are from Old Tupi (transmitted by Portuguese). Since Old Tupi was spoken in the Amazon basin, I could fill a couple weeks with just jungle animals, but Imma keep it to one week, though, somehow. Maybe. Starting with a surprising one that was also surprising a few weeks ago:


cougar (KOO-ger) - n., a large powerful American wild cat (Puma concolor) with an unmarked tawny body and a long tail; (slang) an older woman who seeks relationships with younger men.



Thanks, WikiMedia!


In the first sense, also called puma, mountain lion, mountain cat, catamount, and panther. (Told you this would come back.) This name entered English in the 1770s (same timeframe as puma!) from French couguar, from Portuguese cuguardo, alteration (apparently influenced by jaguar) of Brazilian Portuguese çuçuarana/suçuarana, from either Old Tupi sûasuarana (literally, deer-like animal) or Guaraní guaçuara. (I have questions about this etymology, the most important being, how the hell do you mistake a cougar for a deer?!?)

---L.

Comments

[lilysea]

For years, I was confused why mountain lions were called after an Othering term for men who have sex with men.

Then I realised that I was confusing "catamount" and "catamite".

I wonder how many other people have confused the two?

[prettygoodword]

I did the same when I was a teen.

[pauraque]

Deer are common prey for them, so I wonder if the Old Tupi word might have had a less literal sense of "animal associated with deer." Either that or the coat color?

[flemmings]

More slash fanfics than I care to remember.

[lilysea]

It was not helped by the fact that I have read at least one novel set in the Old West in which a man called another man a catamount

(meaning, I think, in hindsight, that he thought the man was stealthy or sly)

[lilysea]

When I was a very young child,

I thought panther, puma, mountain lion, cougar were four different types of large cat,

and I was like "Wow! North America has four completely different types of large cat!"

[prettygoodword]

It’s confusing to many North Americans too. Especially the panthers, as there are other animals also called that, all of which are all black (specifically, black morph leopards and black morph jaguars). It helps a little that panther is only used of cougars in Florida, but still.

[prettygoodword]

Coat color is my guess.

[prettygoodword]

lol - yeah, that one could go either way

[prettygoodword]

O ouch

[lilysea]

Huh, I'd heard of melanistic African leopards being called panthers,

I had not heard of melanistic jaguars being called panthers.

[full_metal_ox]

Cf. “camel”, “coyote”, and “mink” as color names.

[full_metal_ox]

Further Zoology Fun Fact: there has yet to be a reliable report of a black specimen of Puma concolor.

(Bonus Spooky Season Fun Fact: that’s why the cougars in both Cat People movies had to be dyed rather than cast to order. Why cougars? Apparently they’re more tractable than the leopards they were portraying.)

[prettygoodword]

It’s a rarer name for jags, but yes.

[lilysea]

Why cougars? Apparently they’re more tractable than the leopards they were portraying

Given that African leopards regularly try to kill and eat chimps and baboons, I am not surprised.

Leopards: the only big cat for whom primates that resemble humans are a regular lunch.

[prettygoodword]

Puma concolor specifically lacks the gene responsible for melanism.

[lilysea]

The wiki entry says

The cougar (Puma concolor) (/ˈkuːɡər/, KOO-gər), also called puma, mountain lion, catamount, and panther, is a large small cat native to the Americas

I know what this means - only roaring cats are considered big cats, and mountain lions are not roaring cats -

but "a large small cat" does give "large boulder the size of a small boulder" vibes.

[full_metal_ox]

And thank you once more for having initiated me into the Lucky 10,000!

[prettygoodword]

It does. The terminology is just a wee bit confusing.

Ha!

[jesse_the_k]

Under what rock do I find

large boulder the size of a small boulder

written?

Re: Ha!

[full_metal_ox]

If that’s a non-rhetorical question:

https://www.denver7.com/news/local-news/large-boulder-the-size-of-a-small-boulder-san-miguel-sheriff-celebrates-five-years-since-iconic-tweet

Re: Ha!

[jesse_the_k]

"it created a large internet sensation the size of a small internet sensation."

Thanks, I needed that!

[full_metal_ox]

See also the Yiddish “gunsel”, which I seem to recall your having featured here, and which does not mean what mystery writers following Dashiell Hammett’s lead thought it did.

Many names for cougar

[frith]

Also painter, wildcat and ghost. I think I used to remember even more.

Re: Many names for cougar

[prettygoodword]

Hadn't met ghost. And honestly, I consider wildcat to be a generic name, as it's also used for bobcat, lynx, and others.

Re: Many names for cougar

[frith]

Wildcat may be applied to several other species, as is panther, but it isn't as vague as, say, feline. 8^D I think the prevalence of these various synonyms for mountain lion is region dependent. I think I recall reading that ghost and painter are more likely to be used in Florida or in the south east US. Might have been contextual to young adult novels I read decades ago. Harrumph, this is text and literature dissolving into a kind of personal oral history. Soon I'll be building memory cathedrals in my head!

Re: Many names for cougar

[prettygoodword]

🤣

I think of painter as strictly SE US, yeah.