n. Any of several carnivorous mammals of the family Hyaenidae of Africa and Asia, which feed as scavengers and have powerful jaws, relatively short hind limbs, and coarse hair. [Middle English hiene, hiena, from Old French hiene and Medieval Latin hiena, both from Latin hyaena, from Greek huaina : hūs, hu-, swine (in reference to the hyena's bristly mane like a hog's); see sū- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots + -aina, pejorative feminine n. suffix.] |
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