phalanger

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an Australasian arboreal marsupial of the family Phalangeridae, including the cuscuses and brushtail possums

   The vulpine phalanger is now more commonly called the common brushtail possum.

Borrowed through French phalanger from New Latin Phalangista, an old genus name, ultimately connected with Greek phalangion, a kind of spider, and phalanx, a joint or segment. The name referred to the animals' distinctive paired or webbed toes.

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