where did the term pole cat come from
European polecat The word "polecat" first appeared after the Norman Conquest of England, written as polcat. While the second syllable is largely self-explanatory, the origin of the first is unclear. It is possibly derived from the French poule, meaning "chicken", likely in reference to the species' fondness for poultry, or it may be a variant of the Old English ful, meaning "foul". In Middle English, the species was referred to as foumart, meaning "foul marten", in reference to its strong odour.[citation needed] In Old French, the polecat was called fissau, which was derived from the Low German and Scandinavian verb for "to make a disagreeable smell". This was later corrupted in English as fitchew or fitchet, which itself became the word "fitch", which is used for the polecat's pelt.[14] The word fitchet is the root word for the North American fisher, which was named by Dutch colonists in America who noted similarities between the two species.[15] In some countries such as New Zealand, the term "fitch" has taken on a wider use to refer to related creatures such as ferrets, especially when farmed for their fur.[16][17]