LEMUR

lemur

(noun) large-eyed arboreal prosimian having foxy faces and long furry tails

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Noun

lemur (plural lemurs)

(colloquial) Any strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea, native only to Madagascar and some surrounding islands.

Any of the genus Lemur, represented by the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta).

(obsolete) A loris (Lemur tardigradus, now Loris tardigradus), predating the 10th edition of Systema Naturæ.

Usage notes

The taxonomy is currently disputed, see

Source: Wiktionary

Le"mur, n. Etym: [L., a ghost, specter. So called on account of its habit of going abroad by night.] (Zoöl.)

Definition: One of a family (Lemuridæ) of nocturnal mammals allied to the monkeys, but of small size, and having a sharp and foxlike muzzle, and large eyes. They feed upon birds, insects, and fruit, and are mostly natives of Madagascar and the neighboring islands, one genus (Galago) occurring in Africa. The slow lemur or kukang of the East Indies is Nycticebus tardigradus. See Galago, Indris, and Colugo.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition