Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun the raccoon dog, Nyctereutes procyonoides
  • noun mythology the tanuki regarded as a shapeshifter, also renowned for its enormous scrotum

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Japanese (たぬき, tanuki) "raccoon dog".

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Examples

  • In Japanese folklore, the tanuki is the badger of excess.

    The Fruit Hunters Adam Leith Gollner 2008

  • In Japanese folklore, the tanuki is the badger of excess.

    The Fruit Hunters Adam Leith Gollner 2008

  • In Japanese folklore, the tanuki is the badger of excess.

    The Fruit Hunters Adam Leith Gollner 2008

  • As for that name: A tanuki is a distant member of the canine family, native to Japan, which resembles a racoon.

    Diner's Journal 2009

  • The character of the tanuki is a bit like your drunk grandpa: always borrowing money off of you, getting hammered and dragging his sagging scrotum through your freshly mopped kitchen floor.

    Cracked: All Posts 2009

  • A tanuki is a raccoon like dog that lives in Japan, but in their myths and stories, they have special powers like shapeshifting.

    1UP RSS feed 2009

  • A tanuki is a raccoon like dog that lives in Japan, but in their myths and stories, they have special powers like shapeshifting.

    1UP RSS feed 2009

  • In Japan, they're called tanuki, and there are all sorts of legends about them.

    The Consumerist 2009

  • The character of the tanuki is a bit like your drunk grandpa: always borrowing money off of you, getting hammered and dragging his sagging scrotum through your freshly mopped kitchen floor.

    Cracked: All Posts 2009

  • The character of the tanuki is a bit like your drunk grandpa: always borrowing money off of you, getting hammered and dragging his sagging scrotum through your freshly mopped kitchen floor.

    Cracked: All Posts 2009

  • At my onboarding, I was told that one of GitHub's employees identified as a tanuki, a Japanese raccoon dog—this was fine.

    Remembering GitHub's Office, a Monument to Tech Culture | WIRED

Comments

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  • In appearance it’s comically kookie -

    Both mutt and raccoon - a tanuki!

    A gigantic scrotum

    Is his magic totem.

    That’s fable but still pretty spooky.

    July 16, 2018

  • You've outdone yourself once again, qms!

    July 16, 2018

  • Thanks, zuzu. Can we make this a regular date?

    July 16, 2018

  • Consider yourself added to my calendar.

    July 16, 2018

  • True facts I have met a tanuki tho in Korean it's called nŏguri. It emerged golden and obviously supernatural from the brush at the mountain top only to have my sister yell, don't FEED IT it's DIRTY T-T

    July 19, 2018

  • As for scrotal endowments, it was tucked that day

    July 19, 2018

  • Lucky for your sister. From what I read if he had taken offense he might have unholstered his scrotum, enfolded her in it and carried her off to Tanukiville.

    July 19, 2018