ichneumon

From Latin ichneumōn, from Ancient Greek ἰχνεύμων (ikhneúmōn, “tracker”), from ἴχνος (íkhnos, “track, footstep”).

• IPA^(key): /ɪkˈnjuːmən/

ichneumon (plural ichneumons)

1. An Egyptian mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon), found in Africa and southern Europe.

   Synonym: nems

   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     when the Ichneumon is to grapple with the Crocodile, he walloweth his body in the mire, then lets the same drie and harden upon him […].

2. An ichneumon wasp.
   • 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin, published 2011, page 43:

     Ada's unique Lorelei Underwing had died, paralyzed by some ichneumon that had not been deceived by those clever prominences and fungoid smudges.

3. (mythology) a legendary animal, which kills crocodiles and dragons

• ichneumoned
• ichneumonized
• ichneumonology

• ichnology
• ichnogram
• ichneumia

• IPA^(key): /ik.nø.mɔ̃/

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ichneumon m (plural ichneumons)

1. ichneumon

• “ichneumon”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From Ancient Greek ἰχνεύμων (ikhneúmōn, “tracker”), from ἴχνος (íkhnos, “track, footstep”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ikʰˈneu̯.moːn/, [ɪkʰˈnɛu̯moːn]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ikˈneu̯.mon/, [ikˈnɛːu̯mon]

ichneumōn m (genitive ichneumonis); third declension

1. Egyptian mongoose, Herpestes ichneumon
   • ...deinde internecivum bellum cum ichneumone.
     ...and in the next place she has given it war to the death with the ichneumon.

     Pliny the Elder, Natural History, VIII.35

2. ichneumon wasp, ichneumon fly
   • ...mustela et cornix, turtur et pyrallis, ichneumones vespae et phalangia aranei...
     ...the weasel and the crow, the turtle-dove and the pyrallis, ichneumon-flies and spiders...

     Pliny the Elder, Natural History, X.95

3. (mythology) a legendary animal, which kills crocodiles

Third-declension noun.

• “ichneumon”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• ichneumon in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.