Also Possum. See quotation, 1612.
1610. There are Aracouns, and Apossouns, in shape like to pigges, shrowded in hollow roots of trees.—True Decl. Col. Virginia (1844), 13 (N.E.D.).
1612. An Opassom hath an head like a swine, and a taile like a Rat, and is of the bignes of a Cat.—Capt. John Smith, ‘Map of Virginia,’ 14 (N.E.D.).
1800. Bordering on a wilderness of opassum, and in the region of Tom the Tinker, where men drink whiskey [Pittsburgh to wit].—The Aurora, Phila., Nov. 4.
1826. The husband was a Frenchman, and his wife a squaw…. For supper the husband had a terrapin, the squaw an opossum.—T. Flint, ‘Recollections,’ p. 131.
