Tatouay
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 An armadillo (Cabassous tatouay), native to tropical South America; the broad-banded armadillo.
- 2 naked-tailed armadillo of tropical South America wordnet
Etymology
From a compound word in a Tupi-Guarani language (compare tatu-ai), of which the first element is ultimately from Old Tupi tatu (“armadillo”). Compare Portuguese tatu, French tatou. The second element (ay or ai) may mean "wound" because of a belief that its fat was used on wounds, or "colored", or "worthless".
Related phrases
More for "tatouay"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.