phalanger

noun

pha·​lan·​ger fə-ˈlan-jər How to pronounce phalanger (audio) ˈfā-ˌlan- How to pronounce phalanger (audio)
: any of various small to medium-sized marsupial mammals (family Phalangeridae and related families) of Australia and New Guinea that are chiefly arboreal and nocturnal and that include the possums (see possum sense 2) and cuscuses
Well-developed prehensile tails, large and strong claws and a slow, deliberate way of moving have equipped them well for their lives aloft, making the phalangers the marsupial equivalent of monkeys, sloths and squirrels.—John Vandenbeld

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin, genus name, borrowed from French, from phalange phalange + -er -er entry 2

Note: The French name was introduced by buffon in Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi, tome treizième (Paris, 1765), p. 94. The coinage alludes to the partial syndactyly of two digits of the hind foot: "Je lui donne le nom de Phalanger, parce qu'il a dans quelques phalanges des doigts un caractère fort étrange et qui lui est particulier; le premier & le second doigt des pieds de derrière sont presqu'entièrement réunis ensemble sous la peau, ils ne sont séparé l'un de l'autre que par la dernière phalange." ("I am giving it the name Phalanger, because several phalanges of the digits are of a quite strange nature, which is peculiar to it; the first and second digits of the rear feet are almost entirely joined together under the skin, they are separated from each other only along the last phalange.") The female animal in Buffon's illustration has been identified as Phalanger orientalis (plate 10), the male as Spilocuscus maculatus (plate 11). (See J.E. Gray, "Observations on the Genus Cuscus, with the Description of a New Species," Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, part 26 [1858], pp. 100-05.) Buffon believed that the specimens he described and illustrated were sent to him from Surinam, which is hardly possible unless that colony was one stop on a long voyage. Buffon's French word was turned into a Latin genus name by Gottlieb Conrad Storr in Prodromus methodi mammalium (Tübingen, 1780), p. 33.

First Known Use

1770, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of phalanger was in 1770

Rhymes for phalanger

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Browse Nearby Words

phalangeal bone
phalanger
Phalangeridae
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Cite this Entry

“Phalanger.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/phalanger. Accessed 4 Nov. 2025.

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