‖ tamandua
(təˈmændʊə)
Also 7 tamendoa.
[Pg. tamandua (in Gandavo Historia, 1576, tamendoa), a. Tupi tamanduà. (See J. Platt in Athenæum 19 Oct., 1901, 525.) So F. tamandua (1694 in Hatz.-Darm.), Sp. tamándoa.]
† a. Originally, a name for the Brazilian ant-eaters generally, including the great ant-eater or ant-bear, Myrmecophaga jubata (in Tupi tamandua gua{cced}u).
| 1614 Purchas Pilgrimage ix. iv. (ed. 2) 835 The Tamendoas are as big as a Ram, with long and sharp snouts, a taile like a squirrell, (twice as long as the body and hairy). 1693 Phil. Trans. XVII. 851 The Tamandua or Ant-bear. [1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., Tamandua,..called in English the ant-bear, and by the Brasilians tamandua-gua{cced}u.] 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) IV. 338 The larger tamandua, the smaller tamandua, and the ant eater. |
b. Now generally restricted by naturalists to the smaller Tamandua tetradactyla, and its congeners.
| 1834 Penny Cycl. II. 65/1 The Tamandua (Myrmecophaga tamandua, Cuvier,) or second species of ant-eater, is an animal much inferior to the great ant-bear in point of size, being scarcely so large as a good-sized cat. 1849 [see next]. 1851 Owen in Phil. Trans. CXLI. 744 In the Tamandua (Myrmecophaga Tamandua)..all the cervical vertebræ have spinous processes except the atlas. 1896 List Anim. Zool. Soc. 198 Tamandua tetradactyla, Tamandua Ant⁓eater. 1903 Westm. Gaz. 17 Feb. 10/2 A new and interesting arrival at the Zoological Gardens is the Tamandua ant-eater,..a native of the forests of tropical America, where it leads an entirely arboreal life. |