agouti

agouti (uh-GOO-tee) - n., any of a dozen rabbit-sized rodents (genus Dasyprocta) of Central and South America and the West Indies; a grizzled fur pattern produced by alternate bands of light and dark color on each hair shaft.



Thanks, WikiMedia!

The Central American agouti (D. punctata) shown is a typical agouti, looking kinda like an oversized, leggy guinea pig, though they're less closely related than guinea pigs are to capybaras (obligatory earworm). The brown between our young tabby's dark stripes is agouti, which startled me. The name comes via French agouti, either directly from Old Tupi akuti or via Latin American Spanish agutí from Guaraní acutí.


And to avoid laboring your patience with another week of these, here's some bonus Tupian animal names: coati (from Old Tupi kua'ti, lit. belt-nose), tapir (from Old Tupi tapi'ira), toucan (from Old Tupi tukana), tanager (from Old Tupi tangara), and macaw (supposedly from Nheengatu aka Modern Tupi makawana but evidence is weak). Which clears the deck for the second week of Tupian words in other domains, next week.

---L.