Pacas

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A large, spotted, nocturnal rodent native to the forests of Central and South America, often hunted for its meat
2. Any of several plump, short-tailed burrowing rodents from tropical America that have white spots along their sides
3. A stout, mostly nocturnal South and Central American rodent that lives near water and has a rounded, speckled coat

Etymology: "Pacas" is the plural of "paca," the name of a large, spotted rodent of Central and South America. The English word came to us through Spanish and Portuguese, both of which took it from Paraguayan Guarani, the indigenous language of Paraguay, where the animal's name was "paka." Spanish "paca" and Portuguese "paca" carried the word from the New World into European languages, and English borrowed it from that route. The plural simply follows the regular English pattern of adding "-s" to the singular, so "pacas" refers to more than one of these animals.