Polecats

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of small carnivorous mammal, often resembling ferrets or weasels, commonly found in Europe and Asia
2. A member of the Mustelidae family, known for its musky smell and nocturnal habits
3. Small, elongated creatures that are proficient hunters, primarily feeding on rodents and other small animals

Etymology: "Polecats" is the plural of "polecat," which gives us the rare case of an animal name that seems to promise poultry but delivers something quite different. The second half is easy: "cat," which needs no explanation here. The first half is the puzzle. Middle English speakers wrote it as "polcat" or "pulkat," and its origin is genuinely uncertain. The most often proposed explanation links the first element to a Middle English word "poule," meaning "hen," borrowed from Old French. On this reading, the animal would be a "hen-cat," perhaps a reference to its raids on farmyards. This is a plausible guess rather than a settled fact, and it has to be held loosely, since the link to "hen" is reconstructed rather than documented. A related English word, "foulmart," shows a similar pattern, with the "foul" element often thought to correspond to the same "fowl" idea, so the two names may have grown up side by side. Here too, the connection is suggested by the shape of the words rather than proved.