chipmunk, -muck
(ˈtʃɪpmʌŋk, -mʌk)
Also -minck, -monk, -muk.
[‘Prob. an Indian word’ (Bartlett); though the synonym chipping-squirrel (unless formed from chipmunk) suggests that ‘chipmonk’ may be an English compound.]
A species of ground-squirrel, the Striped Squirrel, Hackee, or Chipping Squirrel, of North America.
| 1842 Mrs. Kirkland Forest Life (Bartlett), Watching the vagaries of the little chipmonk, as he glanced from branch to branch. 1854 P. B. St. John Amy Moss 13, I would not give a chip-minck's tail for both our scalps, if we were circumvented by that noted rascal. 1868 Wood Homes without H. i. 31 The Chipping Squirrel, or Hackee, or Chipmuck (Tamias Lysteri), is peculiarly conspicuous. 1878 Black Green Past. xlv. 359 The merry little chipmunk. 1882 Hawthorne Fortune's Fool i. xxxiii, Hares and striped chipmonks cantered and scudded amidst the huckleberry bushes. |