cat
Pús is the Halq’eméylem word for ‘cat’.
Pronunciation
Pús sounds like POOSE.
Audio: Elizabeth Herrling
Origins
Pús comes from English puss. The word appears to have entered the language through Chinook Jargon, a trade language that was once common on the Northwest Coast.
Related words
The word for kitten is púpsò:llh.
The -ò:llh ending marks ‘little ones’ or ‘offspring’. In púpsò:llh the base word pús is also partly doubled (‘reduplicated’), to indicate ‘small’.
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