ocelot

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a medium-sized, mostly nocturnal wild cat of the Americas with a yellowish coat marked by dark spots and elongated blotches

   The ocelot moved through the forest at night, its patterned coat breaking up its outline.

Borrowed from French ocelot, a name coined by Buffon from Classical Nahuatl ocelotl, 'jaguar.' The Nahuatl word referred to a larger spotted cat, but European zoological usage applied the adapted name to Leopardus pardalis.

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