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English names

• The Eurasian badger is also known as the European badger and the Old world badger.
• The male is called a boar, the female a sow, and the young are called cubs.
• The collective noun for a group of badgers is a cete.

There are a number of old English names for the badger, including:

• Brock
• Pate
• Grey
• Bawson
• Badget (Norfolk dialect)

Of these names, brock (derived from the Celtic broc [b002]) is perhaps the most well known, living on in numerous place names across Britain including Brockhampton, Brockhall, Brockton, and Broxbourne. The other old English names have largely fallen into disuse [b001].

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Latin name

Meles is the Latin for badger [b005]. The species was at first classified as a bear and named Ursus meles [w005-01], but later this was changed to Meles meles.

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Names in other languages

(Where part of the name is in brackets, that part means "European" or "Eurasian".)

• Arabic: greira or gureire [c004].
• Armenian: prsuk [c005].
• Catalan: el teixó or el toixó [w017, w084, w087].
• Chinese: Gou-huan, huan-zi [w005-01]. The Chinese name for the badger is said to mean "the sweet-potato pig" [b001].
• Czech: jezevec lesní [w022, w086].
• Danish: grævling or grævlinger [w017, w085, w091].
• Dutch: de das [w019-01].
• Esperanto: (Eýrazia) melo [w026].
• Estonian: mäger [w017].
• Faroese: grevlingur [w091].
• Finnish: mäyrä [w023].
• French: le blaireau.
• German: der (Europaischer) Dachs [w015].
• Greek: . [w104].
• Hebrew: geereet [w017].
• Hungarian: borz [w017, w024].
• Icelandic: greifingi [w091].
• Irish Gaelic: an broc.
• Italian: il tasso [w020].
• Japanese: - "anaguma".
• Korean: ohsoree. [w017].
• Lithuanian: barsukas [w114, w115].
• Macedonian: jazovec [w106].
• Mongolian: mangessu [c005].
• Norwegian: (europeisk) grevling [w029, w085, w091].
• Persian: barsukh [c005].
• Polish: borsuk (plural = borsuki) [w025, w030].
• Portuguese: o texugo [w017, w028].
• Romanian: viezurele [w095].
• Russian: - "barsuk" [w017].
• Scots Gaelic: an brochlach [w017].
• Serbo-Croat: jazavac [w017, w110].
• Slovak: jazvec obyèajný [w044], jazveca obyèajného [w103], jazvec lesný [w101, w102].
• Slovene: (evrazijski) jazbec [w111].
• Spanish: el tejón (europeo, eurasiático) [w021, w107]. (See right margin for a list of local names for the badger used in various Spanish regions.)
• Swedish: Grävling [w043, w085, w091].
• Tibetan: drumpa (pronounced grum pa) [w017].
• Turkish: porsok [c005], porsuk [w109].
• Welsh: mochyn daear. Translated, this means 'earth pig' [b028].

It is interesting to note the similarities between certain languages:

• Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese (el tejón, el teixó, o texugo)
• German and Dutch (dachs and das)
• Faroese, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish (grevlingur, grevling, grävling, grævling)
• Finnish and Estonian (mäyrä, mäger)
• Slovak, Serbo-Croatian, Czech, Macedonian and Slovene (jazvec, jazavac, jezevec, jazovec, jazbec)
• Armenian, Turkish, Polish, Persian, Lithuanian, Russian and Hungarian (prsuk, porsok, borsuk, barsukh, barsukas, barsuk, borz).

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Picture credits

The Eurasian badger photo used at the head of this Article is © Steve Jackson. Credits for the photos used in the right-hand margin of this page for site navigation can be found on the Credits page.

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