Raccoon

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ɹəˈkuːn/
• US IPA: /ɹæˈkun/, /ɹəˈkun/
• Rhymes: -uːn

Alternative forms

• racoon from 17th c.
• rarowcun 17th c.
• r'coon colloquial contraction

Origin

From arocoun (1608), from Powhatan ärähkun, from ärähkuněm ("he scratches with his hands").

Full definition of raccoon

Noun

1. A nocturnal omnivore native to North America, typically with a mixture of gray, brown, and black fur, a mask-like marking around the eyes and a striped tail; Procyon lotor.
• 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, p. 64:Before a fire upon a seat like a bedsted, he sat covered with a great robe, made of Rarowcun skinnes, and all the tayles hanging by.
• 2010, Charlie Brooker, "Screen Burn", The Guardian, 3 Apr 2010:Thus we're presented with...a man who has the head of his penis bitten off by a raccoon, then bleeds to death in a forest.
2. Any mammal of the genus Procyon.
3. Any mammal of the subfamily Procyoninae, a procyonine.
4. Any mammal of the family Procyonidae, a procyonid.

Synonyms

• (Procyon lotor) coon colloquial, common raccoon, North American raccoon, northern raccoon

Derived terms

• coon
• coon dog
• coonhound
• Cozumel raccoon ()
• crab-eating raccoon (Procyon cancrivorus)
• in a raccoon's age
  in a coon's age
• pygmy raccoon ()
• raccoon butterfly ()
• raccoon butterflyfish, ()
• raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides)
• raccoon eyes