bandicoot

Ultimately from Telugu పందికొక్కు (pandikokku), from పంది (pandi, “pig, boar”) +‎ కొక్కు (kokku, “bandicoot”); first used of the Asian murids, thence applied to the Australian marsupials which bear some resemblance.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbændɪˌkuːt/

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• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈbændiˌkut/

bandicoot (plural bandicoots)

1. Any of various small Australian marsupials with distinctive long snouts, of the family Peramelidae (with the exception of genus Macrotis, called bilbies).
2. Any of several rat-like rodents of the genera Bandicota and Nesokia of southeast Asia.

   Synonym: bandicoot rat

• bandicoot rat
• northern brown bandicoot
• pig-footed bandicoot
• rabbit bandicoot
• rabbit-eared bandicoot
• southern brown bandicoot
• typical bandicoot

bandicoot (third-person singular simple present bandicoots, present participle bandicooting, simple past and past participle bandicooted)

1. (Australia, informal) To steal growing root vegetables from a garden by digging the vegetable out but leaving the tops undisturbed.

“bandicoot, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2020., “bandicoot”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022..

Unadapted borrowing from English bandicoot, in turn borrowed from Telugu పందికొక్కు (pandikokku).

bandicoot m (plural bandicoots)

1. bandicoot (small Australian marsupial of the family Peramelidae)