woodchuck
Pluralwoodchucks
- 1A rodent of the squirrel family, one of the large ground squirrels known as marmots (Marmota monax).
A woodchuck has dug a burrow under the shed, and the dog barks at the hole every morning.
A Vermont farmer set a live trap for the woodchucks raiding his bean field.
Similargroundhog
Note
Neither wood nor chucking has anything to do with the name. It comes from an Algonquian word, Cree ocêk or Ojibwe ojiig, that meant the fisher or the marten and was later reapplied to this marmot; an older form, woodshock, still sometimes names the marten. Woodchuck is the Northern US name, while groundhog, whistle pig, land-beaver and moonack are other names for the same animal.
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Origin
Borrowed from Cree ocêk or otchek ("fisher"), which was borrowed from Ojibwe ojiig ("fisher, marten") or a similar word in a related Algonquian language, and later applied to the groundhog. An earlier form of the word, woodshock, is still sometimes used for the marten, and woodchuck is also a doublet of wejack.