different between racoon vs possum

English

Alternative forms

• raccoon

Noun

racoon (plural racoons)

1. Alternative spelling of raccoon

Translations

Anagrams

• Corona, caroon, corona

English

Etymology

Derived from opossum by apheresis.

Pronunciation

• enPR: p?s'?m, IPA^(key): /?p?s?m/
• Rhymes: -?s?m

Noun

possum (plural possums)

1. (US) An opossum, a marsupial of the family Didelphidae of the Americas.
2. Any of the marsupials in several families of the order Diprotodontia of Australia and neighboring islands.

Derived terms

• brushtail possum
• play possum
• ring-tail possum

Related terms

• opossum

Translations

See also

• possum on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Diprotodontia on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Didelphidae on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Verb

possum (third-person singular simple present possums, present participle possuming, simple past and past participle possumed)

1. (intransitive) To play possum; to feign sleep, illness, or death.

References

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *potis ezom, equivalent to potis (“able, capable”) + sum (“I am”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?pos.sum/, [?p?s?????]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?pos.sum/, [?p?s?um]

Verb

possum (present infinitive posse, perfect active potu?); irregular conjugation, irregular, no passive

1. I am able, I can, I may

   Tunc, modo edere non potuit.

   At that time, he just wasn't able to eat.

   Possum Latine loqui.

   I am able to speak in Latin.

   Potesne mihi succurrere, quaeso?

   Can you help me please?

   Si probare possemus Ligarium in ?fric? omnino non fuisse.

   If we could prove that Ligarius was not at all in Africa.

Conjugation

This verb is irregular, but resembles sum prefixed with pot-. Several contractions and simplifications occur, however: -ts- ? -ss-, -tf- ? -t-, -tess- ? -ss- (note that pot?ns does not originate from non-existent *f?ns).

In Vulgar Latin, the first person singular is changed to *poss? (causing the verb to be treated to be a third conjugation verb (base poss-) for the present subjunctive (*possam, *poss?s), though the rest of the verb became the second conjugation verb *pot?re ((tu) *pot?s, (is/ea/id) *potet, (n?s) *pot?mus, (v?s) *pot?tis, and (e?/eae/ea) *potent)), based on forms like potu? and pot?ns, just like velle (infinitive of vol?) was reformed to *vol?re after forms like volu? and vol?ns.

However, Osco-Umbrian forms confirm that a Proto-Italic verb Proto-Italic *pote? (“to be master”) (stem *pot-?-) must also be reconstructed that, although lost in Latin otherwise, appears to have been the ultimate historical source of potu? and pot?ns.

• Some passive forms are attested in ante-classical authors (e.g. potestur, poteratur, possitur, possetur).

Quotations

Derived terms

• multum posse
• possibilis
• pot?ns
• potentia

Related terms

Descendants

• English: in posse, power
• Vulgar Latin: *posso (see there for further descendants)
• French: pouvoir

References

• possum in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• possum in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• possum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book?^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
• possum in Ramminger, Johann (accessed 16 July 2016) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700?^[2], pre-publication website, 2005-2016