Editing Opossum (section)

== Etymology ==
The word ''opossum'' is derived from the [[Powhatan language]] and was first recorded between 1607 and 1611 by [[John Smith (explorer)|John Smith]] (as ''opassom'') and [[William Strachey]] (as ''aposoum'').<ref>{{cite book |last=Mithun |first=Marianne |date=2001 |title=The Languages of Native North America |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=332 |isbn=978-0-521-29875-9 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ALnf3s2m7PkC}}</ref> ''Possum'' was first recorded in 1613. Both men encountered the language at the English settlement of [[Jamestown, Virginia]], which Smith helped to found and where Strachey later served as its first secretary.<ref name="Siebert">{{cite encyclopedia | last=Siebert | first=Frank T. Jr. |editor-last=Crawford |editor-first=James Mack |date=1975 |encyclopedia=Studies in Southeastern Indian Languages |title=Resurrecting Virginia Algonquian from the Dead: The Reconstituted and Historical Phonology of Powhatan |publisher=University of Georgia Press}}</ref> Strachey's notes describe the opossum as a "beast in bigness of a pig and in taste alike," while Smith recorded it "hath an head like a swine ... tail like a rat ... of the bigness of a cat."<ref name="Siebert" /> The Powhatan word ultimately derives from a [[Proto-Algonquian language|Proto-Algonquian]] word (''*wa·p-aʔθemwa'') meaning "white dog or dog-like beast."<ref name="Siebert" />

Following the arrival of Europeans in [[Australia]], the term ''possum'' was borrowed to describe distantly related [[Australidelphia|Australian marsupials]] of the suborder [[Phalangeriformes]],<ref>{{cite dictionary | title = The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition | year = 2014 | entry = possum | publisher = Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | url = http://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=possum | access-date = 12 July 2014}}</ref> which are more closely related to other Australian marsupials such as kangaroos.

Didelphimorphia comes from the [[Ancient Greek]] words for "two" (''di'') and "wombs" (''delphus'').<ref>{{cite dictionary|title=Wordnik|url=https://www.wordnik.com/words/Didelphimorphia|entry=Didelphimorphia|access-date=14 June 2024}}</ref>