black squirrel
- noun
- /blæk ˈskwɜrəl/
- US
:
ardilla negra
- While walking in the park, I spotted a little black squirrel climbing a tree.
Examples
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The black squirrel sat on the branch, nibbling on an acorn that it had found.
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He also took aim at the gray squirrels and the black squirrels just for good measure.
Fiction book (2002) -
A branch pecked the pane, and a black squirrel landed on the ledge.
Fiction book (1999) -
I watched two black squirrels with pointy ears quarrel over a nut, though the ground was strewn with them.
Fiction book (1999) -
There is a note for you: The coat of the Eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) may be of two colors, gray and black, bringing people to believe (mistakenly) that they are two distinct species. Black is often the dominant color in the northern range of the species in Ontario and Quebec. Further south, the black is less common, and there is no black squirrel in the southern United States.
Blog text (15) -
Two black squirrels chased each other across the yard in search of food.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a squirrel that is black in color' is directly and transparently built from the adjective 'black' modifying the noun 'squirrel' following a common color + noun compositional pattern. This construction is cross-linguistically ordinary and fully predictable, so a B1 learner who knows both words would understand the MWE.
Etymology
The name black squirrel simply describes a squirrel with dark black fur, usually because of a change in its genes. So, it means 'a squirrel with black fur'.
