suricate (French)
Where does "suricate" come from?
The word suricate originated from a South African language before being adopted into French as surikate. It eventually evolved into its modern form and entered English as a distinctive term for the meerkat, a small social mongoose found in southern Africa.
Full etymology tree
- suricate (French), 'meerkat (mammal)'
- inherited surikate (French)
- borrowed surikate (South African language)
- inherited surikate (French)
Updated July 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris