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n. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
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.] |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
