dormouse

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. Any of several species of small, mostly European rodents of the family Gliridae.
  2. Glis glis (edible dormouse).
  3. Muscardinus avellanarius (hazel dormouse).
  4. A person who sleeps a great deal, or who falls asleep readily (by analogy with the sound hibernation of the dormouse).

Pronunciation

/ˈdɔɹ.maʊs/ /ˈdɔː.maʊs/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dormouse.wav LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-dormouse.wav

Word forms

dormouse dormice doormouse

Etymology

From Middle English dormowse, of uncertain origin. Possibly from a dialectal *dor-, from Old Norse dár (“benumbed”) + mous (“mouse”). More at doze, mouse. The word is sometimes conjectured to come from an Anglo-Norman derivative of Old French dormir (“to sleep”) (as *dormouse (“tending to be dormant”), with second element mistaken for mouse), but no such Anglo-Norman term is known to have existed.

Translations

Albanian: gjer Armenian: քնամուկ Asturian: llirón Asturian: llira Azerbaijani: süleysin Basque: muxar Belarusian: соня-палчок Breton: lir Breton: hunegan Bulgarian: сънливец Catalan: liró Catalan: rata dormidora Chinese Mandarin: 睡鼠 Czech: plch Danish: syvsover Danish: hasselmus Dutch: relmuis Dutch: hazelmuis Esperanto: gliro Estonian: kunel Faroese: heslimús Finnish: unikeko French: loir West-Frisian: sânslieper Friulian: glîr Galician: leirón Galician: lirio Galician: liranco German: Bilch German: Bilchmaus German: Schläfer German: Schlafmaus German: Siebenschläfer German: Gartenschläfer German: Haselmaus German: Haselmuus Greek: δασομυωξός Hungarian: pele Icelandic: heslimús Irish: luch chodlamáin Irish: dallóg fhéir Italian: ghiro Italian: moscardino Italian: muscardinide Japanese: ヤマネ Korean: 겨울잠쥐 Ladin: ghiro Latin: glīs Latin: nītēdula Latvian: susuris Lithuanian: miegapelė Macedonian: полв Maltese: ġurdien ta’ denbu pjuma Mongolian: унтаахай Norwegian: syvsover Norwegian: sovemus Occitan: missara Occitan: greule Polish: popielica Polish: pilch Portuguese: arganaz
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