Animals, plants & weather

mongoose

The snake-fighting mongoose took its name from Marathi muṅgūs via Portuguese; English respelled the end as -goose, though the animal has nothing to do with geese. Portuguese also passed it to French, Spanish and Italian, and the mongooses released in Okinawa and Hawaii carried the English name.

Weakest linkProbable

The road to English

From Portuguese to French

From Portuguese to Spanish

From Portuguese to Italian

From English to German

From English to Japanese

1300Marathi

Hops are evenly spaced; labels show the year each form is first attested.

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