petaurist

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Definitions (2)

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  1. A flying-phalanger, flying-opossum, Australian flying-squirrel, or acrobat: any member of the old genus Petaurus, or modern subfamily Petaurinæ. These animals are marsupials of medium or small size, mostly provided with a patagium or parachute which enables them to take flying leaps. The petaurists proper, or taguans, belong to the genus Petaurista. The sciurine or squirrel petaurists are of the genus Belideus, and strikingly like ordinary flying-squirrels. Pygmy petaurists, or acro-bats, also called opossum-mice, are among the very smallest of marsupials: they belong to the genus Acrobates. Petaurists without a patagium form the genus Gymnobelideus. See cuts under Acrobates and Petaurista.

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Etymologies (1)

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  1. = French pétauriste, from Latin petaurista, petauristes, a tumbler, vaulter, ropedancer, an animal that leaps very high, from Greek πεταυριστής, a rope-dancer, tumbler, from πεταυρίζειν, jump from a spring-board, dance on a rope, tumble, from πέταυρον (later L. petaurum), also πέτευρον, a perch or roost for fowls, a spring-board or stage for a tumbler, a spring or trap; supposed, without probability, to be from πεδάορος, Æolic for μετέωρος, aloft in the air: see meteor.
 

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