cougar

See also: Cougar

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From French couguar, from Brazilian Portuguese suçuarana, perhaps from Tupian (suasuarana (deerlike animal), from suasú (deer); compare sɨwasuarána (cervine)) or perhaps from Guaraní (guaçuara).[1]

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈkuːɡə/, [ˈkʰuːɡə], /ˈkuːɡɑ/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈkuɡɚ/, [ˈkʰuɡɚ]

Noun

cougar (plural cougars)

  1. A mountain lion; Puma concolor.
    Synonyms: catamount, catamountain, mountain lion, painter, panther, puma, red tiger
    Hyponym: Florida panther
    • 1792, Buffon's Natural History, volume 7, translation of original by Georges-Louis Leclerc:
      They are found in Brasil, Paraguay, and in the country of the Amazons; and there is reason to believe that the animal, described by some travellers, under the name of the Ocorome, in Peru, is the same as the cougar, as well as that in the country of the Iroquois, which has been considered as a tiger, thought it is neither striped like that animal, nor spotted like the panther.
    • 1831, Francis Smith Eastman, A history of the state of New York:
      The Cougar has entirely disappeared, or is very rarely met with. This animal was about the size of the wolf, of a gray color, strong, active, fierce and untameable.
    • 1854, “The cougar, and an adventure with one”, in The Anglo-American Magazine, volume 4, page 84:
      The only indigenous long tailed cat in America north of the parallel of 30 degrees is the cougar. The wild cats, so called, are lynxes with short tails; and of these there are three distinct species.
  2. (Canada, US, slang) An older woman who actively seeks the casual, often sexual, companionship of younger men, by implication a female “sexual predator”.
    A cougar approached Warren at the Palomino Club and asked for a dance.
    Hypernyms: cradle robber, cradle snatcher, manther

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

See also

References

  1. cougar” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.

French

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ku.ɡaʁ/
  • (file)

Noun

cougar f (plural cougars)

  1. (informal) cougar (an older woman who actively seeks the casual, often sexual, companionship of younger men)

See also

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