Forms: 7 jerbuah, 8 gerbo, gerbua, yerbua, jeribo, 8– jerboa. [mod.L. jerbōa, a. Arab. yarbūs, in Barbary yerbōs, the flesh of the loins, also the animal; whence F. gerbo, gerboise, Sp. gerbasia.]
1. A small rodent quadruped, Dipus sagitta, found in the deserts of Africa; it is of the size of a rat, has very long hind legs and short fore legs, and a long tufted tail, and is remarkable for its powers of jumping. Hence, any Jumping-mouse of the genus Dipus, or of the family Dipodidæ, representatives of which are found in various arid regions.
1662. J. Davies, Olearius’ Voy. Ambass., VII. 415. We saw also, neer Terki, a kind of Field-mice, which in the Arabian Language are called Jerbuah.
1702. W. J., trans. Bruyn’s Voy. Levant, lxxviii. 287. I was presented with a small Animal called Gerbo, which was brought for a rarity from Barbary.
1752. H. Walpole, Corr. (1837), I. 182. Mr. Conway has brought lady Ailesbury … a Jeribo … a composition of a squirrel, a hare, a rat, and a monkey, which altogether looks very like a bird.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., II. 432. The gerbua, though, properly speaking, furnished with but two legs, is one of the swiftest animals in the world.
1813. Bingley, Anim. Biog. (ed. 4), I. 399. The Jerboas seem, in many respects both of conformation and habit, much allied to the kanguroos.
1853. Kingsley, Hypatia, xxi. A jerboa sprang up from a tuft of bushes at his feet.
2. Comb. Jerboa-mouse, a North American rodent of the genus Dipodomys, one of the pouched-mice or kangaroo-rats of the South-western U.S. and Mexico.
