Etymology

possum

P3O1S1S1U1M3

Today it means: A marsupial of the family Didelphidae of the Americas; an opossum. Full definition →

English opossum ← Powhatan aposoum ← Proto-Algonquian *wa·p-aʔθemwa
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The story

  1. Proto-Algonquian*wa·p-
  2. Proto-Algonquian*aθemwa
  3. Proto-Algonquian*wa·p-aʔθemwa
  4. Powhatanaposoum
  5. Englishopossum
  6. English todaypossum

Derived from opossum by apheresis.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.