coyote

(Sp. model spelled same [kojóte] < Nahuatl cóyotl 'coyote')

   Noun forms:

   1) Clark: 1820s. A small American wolf (Canis latrans). Spanish sources provide the same genus and species. Santamaría indicates that it is a wolf about the size of a large dog. It has yellowish-gray fur and is endowed with instincts and cunning, making it similar in behavior to the fox.

   Alternate forms: cayeute, cayota, cayote, cayute, collote, coyoto, cuiota, cyote, kiote, otie.

   Also called barking wolf, brush wolf, cased wolf, medicine wolf, prairie wolf.

   2) Southern California: 1872. An Indian or a person with one Indian parent. Santamaría says that coyote sometimes refers to a criollo, or a person of Spanish descent born in the Americas, or to his/her parents. Cobos concurs, pointing out that in southern Colorado and New Mexico it also means the offspring of an Anglo-American, Indo-Hispanic marriage. Sobarzo indicates that it is a synonym for mestizo or mestiza, a mixture of European and Indian blood, and is common in the feminine. Galván provides a similar meaning for the term in Chicano Spanish, namely "half-breed."

   3) A contemptible person; a liar or cheat; one who sneaks around like a coyote. Also a squatter.

   4) According to Blevins, a person from the Dakotas.

   5) DARE (Adams): 1903. A dun-colored horse with a dark strip down its back.

   Also called coyote dun.

   6) Verb forms: to clear out; run away.

   See also vamoose.