civet

• civet cat

From French civette, from Italian zibetto, from Medieval Latin zibethum, from Arabic زَبَاد‎ (zabād).

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɪ.vɪt/

civet (countable and uncountable, plural civets)

1. (countable) A carnivorous catlike animal, Civettictis civetta, that produces a musky secretion. It is two to three feet long, with black bands and spots on the body and tail.
2. (uncountable) The musky perfume produced by the animal.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act 3 Scene 2

     LEONATO. Indeed he looks younger than he did, by the loss of a beard.

     DON PEDRO. Nay, a' rubs himself with civet: can you smell him out by that?

     CLAUDIO. That's as much as to say the sweet youth's in love.

   • 1607, [attributed to Thomas Tomkis], Lingva: Or The Combat of the Tongue, and the Five Senses for Superiority. A Pleasant Comœdie., London: Printed by G[eorge] Eld, for Simon Waterson, OCLC 52434902, Act IV, scene iii:

     Your onely way to make a good pomander, is this. Take an ownce of the pureſt garden mould, clenſed and ſteeped ſeauen daies in change of motherleſſe roſe water, then take the beſt Labdanum, Benioine, both Storaxes, amber greece, and Ciuet, and muſke, incorporate them together, and work them into what form you pleaſe; this, if your breath bee not to valiant, will make you ſmell as ſweete as my Ladies dogge.

3. Any animal in the family Viverridae or the similar family Nandiniidae
4. (countable, US) Any of several species of spotted skunk, in the genus Spilogale.

• palm civet

• evict

Compare Italian civetta, Romansch tschuetta, French chouette.

civet m

1. owl
2. burrowing owl

cive +‎ -et

• IPA^(key): /si.vɛ/

civet m (plural civets)

1. (cuisine) ragout of hare, rabbit or wild mammal, with red wine and onions, bound with the animal’s blood.

• “civet” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).