Meaning

noun nocturnal arboreal marsupial having a naked prehensile tail found from southern North America to northern South America

noun small furry Australian arboreal marsupials having long usually prehensile tails

originEtymology tree Proto-Algonquian *wa·p- Proto-Algonquian *aθemwa Proto-Algonquian *wa·p-aʔθemwa Powhatan aposoumbor. English opossumder. English possum Derived from opossum by apheresis.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0