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marmot (n.)
Related entries & more c. 1600, of a type of large rodent found in the Alps and Pyrenees, from French marmotte, from Romansch (Swiss) murmont (assimilated to Old French marmote "monkey"), from Latin murem montis "mountain mouse." Applied 18c. to similar animals found in Asia and North America.
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ground-hog (n.)also groundhog, "American marmot," 1784, from ground (n.) + hog (n.). Also known colloquially as a whistlepig, woodchuck, and compare aardvark. Ground Hog Day as a weather forecasting event is first recorded 1869, in an Ohio newspaper article that calls it "old tradition;" the custom though not the name, attested from 1850s.
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