Etymology

tayra

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Today it means: A South American omnivore, Eira barbara, allied to the grison, with a long thick tail. Full definition →

Spanish tayra ← Portuguese taira ← Old Tupi eîrara
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The story

  1. Old Tupi · derived fromeîrara
  2. Portuguese · borrowed fromtaira
  3. Spanish · borrowed fromtayra
  4. English todaytayra

Borrowed, via Spanish tayra or Portuguese taira, from Old Tupi eîrara. (Compare Portuguese irara, Spanish irará, eirá, connected to Paraguayan Guarani eíra (“honey”), a food the animal is fond of, whence also Portuguese papa-mel, another vernacular name.)

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.