veelvraat

1710; compound of veel (“much”) +‎ vraat (“gobbling, eating gluttonously”), calque of German Vielfraß or German Low German Veelfraat. The term originally meant simply ‘glutton’ in German, but was applied to the hyena in pre-modern times. In the 15th century, Norwegian fjellfross (“wolverine”, literally “mountain cat”) was borrowed into Middle Low German by Hanseatic fur traders as villevrās and folk-etymologically blended with the existing word for ‘glutton’, possibly influenced by Finnish ahma (“glutton; wolverine”), giving veelvratz (Reinke de Vos, 1498), vēlevrās, vēlevrāt.

The meaning ‘wolverine’ was initially the only one received into Dutch, being attested in the early 18th century. By the end of the 18th century the word had acquired its sense ‘fox moth’ and by 1849 the word had acquired the meaning ‘glutton’.

• IPA^(key): /ˈveːl.vraːt/

• Audio:

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• Hyphenation: veel‧vraat

veelvraat m (plural veelvraten, diminutive veelvraatje n)

1. wolverine (Gulo gulo)

   Hypernym: marterachtige

2. fox moth (Macrothylacia rubi)
3. glutton

   Synonyms: slokop, vraat, vreetzak, schrokop

• veelvraat on the Dutch Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^nl