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Image: Eurasian badger (Meles meles).

Home » Eurasian badger (Meles meles) » Articles :

Names

What does Meles mean? What are badgers called in Dutch, Czech or Japanese? These questions and more are answered on this Badger Page.

On this page:

English names | Latin name | Names in other languages | Related Badger Pages

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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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Related Badger Pages

Find out about the names of:

• The hog badger
• The American badger
• The ferret badgers
• The honey badger
• The stink badgers

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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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Go to the Eurasian badger home page.

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Go to the American badger home page.

Go to the ferret badgers home page.

Go to the honey badger home page.

Go to the stink badgers home page.

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