Pl. lemurs, ǁ lemures. [a. L. *lemur, pl. lemures.]
1. In Roman mythology: pl. The spirits of the departed.
[1555. Eden, Decades, 26. In these they graue the lyuely Images of such phantasies as they suppose they see walke by night which the Antiquitie cauled Lemures.]
c. 1580. Jefferie, Bugbears, III. iii. in Archiv Stud. neu. Spr. (1897), 68. Harpyes, Gogmagogs, lemures.
1629. Milton, Nativity, 191. The Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint.
1657. H. Pinnell, Philos. Ref., 26. To the Earth doe belong Gnoms, Lemurs, Sylphs [etc.].
1834. Lytton, Pompeii, IV. vi. Lest he beheld one of those grim lemures, who … haunted the threshold of the homes they formerly possessed.
2. Zool. A genus of nocturnal mammals of the family Lemuridæ, found chiefly in Madagascar, allied to the monkeys, but having a pointed muzzle like that of a fox; an animal of this genus.
1795. trans. Thunberg’s Cape Gd. Hope (ed. 2), II. 206. This species of Lemur somewhat resembles a cat, with its long tail, diversified with black and white ringlets.
1863. Lyell, Antiq. Man, xxiv. 474. His order Primates … embraced not only the apes and lemurs, but the bats also.
1865. Livingstone, Zambesi, x. 213. A little lemur was once seen to leap about from branch to branch.
