woodchuck

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   reddish brown North American marmot

2. 2
   noun

   A rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots, Marmota monax.

Borrowed from Cree ocêk, otchek (“fisher”), Ojibwe ojiig (“fisher, marten”), or a similar term in a related Algonquian language, subsequently reapplied to the groundhog. An earlier form of this word, woodshock, still sometimes designates the marten. Also a doublet of wejack.

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