Muskox
/ˈmʌskˌɑks/noun
A large shaggy Arctic bovine with a strong musky odor, native to northern North America and Greenland.
Did you know?The first element of muskox is tied to the animal’s odor, not to the perfume musk: the word was formed in English from older Scandinavian terms for a “musk-smelling ox.”
Etymological Timeline
Old Norse
ON
mosk-
“musk, strong scent”
Old Norse
ON
uxi
“ox”
Early Modern English
English
musk ox
“a shaggy northern ox with a musky smell”
19th Century
English
muskox
“modern single-word spelling for the Arctic bovine”
Modern English
English
muskox
“a large shaggy Arctic bovine with a strong musky odor”
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