coon bear
- noun
- /kun bɛr/
- Archaic
:
oso panda
- Visitors at the zoo were excited to see the coon bear munching on bamboo.
Examples
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Unlike other bears, the coon bear has a distinctive black-and-white coat.
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Many tourists visit China to see the coon bear in its natural habitat.
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The coon bear is considered a symbol of conservation efforts worldwide.
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The coon bear is known for its distinctive black and white fur.
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Many tourists visit China to see the coon bear in its natural habitat.
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Visitors at the zoo were excited to see the coon bear munching on bamboo.
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Unlike other bears, the coon bear has a distinctive black-and-white coat.
Synonyms
68
1.0
A large black-and-white bear that eats bamboo in forests of China
5
1.7
A large black and white bear from China that eats mainly bamboo
5
1.0
A large black and white bear from China that eats mostly bamboo
A large black and white bear that eats bamboo and lives in Chinese mountain forests
A group of bears that includes only the giant panda
Surface Forms
Morphology
coon + bear
The constituent 'bear' is transparent, but 'coon' is rare/ambiguous (often short for 'raccoon' or a dialectal/archaic term) and not listed here; if a learner interpreted 'coon' as 'raccoon' they could infer 'a bear that looks like a raccoon', which partially points to the panda. However, mapping that inference specifically to 'giant panda' requires extra cultural/lexical knowledge, so the relation is only partially predictable.
Etymology
Coon bear may come from people seeing the panda's dark eye patches like a raccoon's mask. Because the animal is a bear with marks that reminded people of a 'raccoon' and the short word coon was used, the name came to mean the giant panda today.