potto
- noun
- /ˈpɑːtoʊ/
- With its large eyes, the potto is perfectly adapted for its nocturnal lifestyle.
Examples
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The potto uses its strong gripping hands to navigate along the branches at night.
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The Potto, a masquerade which in its nineteenth-century form was enacted by a naked female initiate covered only with clay or ash, impersonated the small nocturnal primate known as the potto, which carries its young on its back.
Academic text (1998) -
The mask stopped and walked slowly again like the animal potto or like an elderly person.
Academic text (1998) -
The thumbs of the potto are set at an angle of 180 degrees to the other digits.
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Yet the potto possesses social and reproductive attributes that those who want to succeed in life should emulate.
Academic text (1998) -
Further, Weil likens the nocturnal habits of the potto to the time and place women are thought to manifest their covert power.
Academic text (1998) -
The masker held a staff like the one used by the Baby Leopard, which may be related to the potto's pattern of moving slowly through trees along both vertical and horizontal branches (Charles-Dominique 1977:76).
Academic text (1998) -
The potto is known for its slow movement and lives high up in the trees of the rainforest.
Synonyms
A slow-moving animal from tropical Africa that lives in trees and is active at night with a small index finger
A group of small African tree mammals like the potto
Compounds
A small yellowish animal from West African forests that is active at night and eats insects and fruit
- Specialized
A slow-moving animal from tropical Africa that lives in trees and is active at night with a small index finger
Surface Forms
Etymology
Potto comes from a West African local name for this small night animal, so its name arrived in English from the place where people first knew it. That's why potto refers to a quiet, slow-moving, tree-living mammal from African forests.