catamount
(ˈkætəmaʊnt)
[Shortened from catamountain.]
† 1. = catamountain; a pard or panther. Obs.
| 1664 Power Exp. Philos. i. 5 With clea's or tallons (like a Catamount). 1730–6 Bailey (folio) Cat-a-mount, a Mongrel, or wild Cat. |
2. A common name in U.S. of the puma or cougar (Felis concolor), also called Panther, Painter, and Mountain (or American) Lion.
| 1794 S. Williams Vermont 86 The catamount seems to be the same animal which the ancients called Lynx. 1825 Bro. Jonathan I. 109 A wild beast..I say! twarn't a cattermount tho', was it? 1855 O. W. Holmes Poems 193 The woods were full of Catamounts, And Indians red as deer. 1870 Emerson Soc. & Solit., Courage Wks. (Bohn) III. 108 The hunter is not alarmed by bears, catamounts, or wolves. 1884 Echo 24 Nov. 4/3 In Pennsylvania, bears and catamounts are so numerous..in Pike county as to be a perfect nuisance to the farmers. |