Musquaw
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The American black bear.
Etymology
From a Native American (probably Algonquian) word. Perhaps from Abenaki moskwas (“muskrat, musquash”). The use of a Native American word for one animal to designate a different animal was not uncommon; compare woodchuck (“groundhog”), from an Algonquian word for the fisher marten.
Related phrases
More for "musquaw"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.