A beast, the lusetan or ounce?

[Charles Doyle]

The "ounce" (so spelled) is a well-attested term for certain lynx-like critters . . . .

--Charlie
____________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2006 16:16:50 -0400
>From: Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
>Subject: Re: A beast, the lusetan or ounce?
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

>
>On 7/14/06, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>> On 7/14/06, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>> >
>> > What word today is lusetan, as in "the beasts of the country are bears, lusetans or ounces [etc.]", from 1720?
>>
>> OED gives "luseran" as a variant of "lucern", an archaic term for the lynx.
>
>So it would follow that "ounces" is a possible misprint/scanning error for "lynces"/"linces".
>
>
>--Ben Zimmer

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