Meanings
appaloosa1
appaloosa2
plural appaloosas · alternative Appaloosa
- Southern USUSA catfish.
A big fish wends its way towards the shape the light makes, stops and sucks at air. Mottled brown and black, with a pink, appaloosa mouth.
2005, David Francis, The Great Inland Sea, page 1411 more example
On a two-day camp out at Red Bluff on the Angelina River in East Texas, we had out twelve trotlines, fishing for mud, appaloosa, blue and channel catfish.
2008, Harry Noble, Me and Burnice: A Simpler Time, page 167
Appaloosa3
Origin
appaloosa · noun
From a + Palouse + -a. From the phrase "a Palouse horse", referring to the Palouse River near which they were first encountered by non-Native Americans. The river is named for the Palouse region.
Full word history & related roots →appaloosa · noun
Ellipsis of Appaloosa cat, itself an ellipsis of Apaloosa catfish, after the Appalousa people of Louisiana.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Finnish appaloosa
- appaloosahorse breed
Portuguese appaloosa
- appaloosahorse breed
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with appaloosa
All rhymes →Cite this entry
appaloosa. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/appaloosa
“appaloosa.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/appaloosa. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “appaloosa,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/appaloosa.
Source: appaloosa on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.