Etymology

civet

C3I1V4E1T1

Today it means: Any of the small carnivorous catlike mammals encompassing certain species from the families Viverridae, Eupleridae, and Nandiniidae, native to tropical Africa and Asia. Full definition →

French civette ← Italian zibetto ← Medieval Latin zibethum
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The story

  1. Arabic · derived fromزَبَاد
  2. Medieval Latin · derived fromzibethum
  3. Italian · derived fromzibetto
  4. French · derived fromcivette
  5. English todaycivet

From French civette, from Italian zibetto, from Medieval Latin zibethum, from Arabic زَبَاد (zabād).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.