ラッコ

The Muromachi-period Bunmeibon Setsuyoshu is the early source cited by Shogakukan's Seisenban Nihon Kokugo Daijiten for ラッコ, with the form 獺虎 ラッコ. The source language is Ainu, with the form rakko. Hattori Shiro's 1964 Ainu Dialect Dictionary records Ainu rákko in places such as Yakumo, Saru, and the Kuril area. The borrowing route is northern contact around Ezo, the Kurils, and the North Pacific fur trade. Japanese used several kanji spellings, including 猟虎, 獺虎, and 海獺, but modern biological writing usually chooses katakana. A related Meiji clothing word, 猟虎帽, appears with Tsubouchi Shoyo in 1885-86. Other Ainu-related Japanese names often discussed with it include トナカイ, シシャモ, and ルイベ. Modern Japanese ラッコ means the sea otter, Enhydra lutris, and aquarium signs almost always write it in katakana. Species panels may also print the Latin name Enhydra lutris beside ラッコ. In taxonomy it belongs to the family Mustelidae. English sea otter is a compound using otter, while Japanese ラッコ is not built from カワウソ. The kanji 海獺 can be read as a sea otter name, but カワウソ alone means otter. Example: ラッコはカワウソ科の海の動物です.