Also conepate. [Native Mexican name: lit. ‘little fox’; f. conetl, in comp. cone- ‘child,’ prefixed to names of animals = ‘young, little’ + epatl fox. (Siméon.)] An American skunk (genus Conepātus, J. E. Gray, 1837).
[1651. Hernández, [Hist. Plant Anim. & Min. Mexico], 332. Alterum [genus] Yzquiepatl [etiam] vocatum … alterum verò, Conepatl, seu Vulpecula puerilis.]
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1862), I. IV. iii. 421. Two varieties more of this animal [the skunk], which Mr. Buffon calls the conepate and the zorille.
1812. Smellie & Wood, trans. Buffon’s Nat. Hist., IX. 212. The third Hernandez calls conepatl which name we shall preserve.
