nutria
noun
nu·tria ˈnü-trē-ə 
ˈnyü-
1
: the durable usually light brown fur of a nutria
2
: a large South American semiaquatic rodent (Myocastor coypus) with webbed hind feet and a round nearly hairless tail that has been introduced into parts of Europe, Asia, and North America
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web The nutria, named Parish, crawled out of her den at the zoo early Tuesday morning and did not see her shadow, her caretakers said. 
Carlie Wells, NOLA.com, 2 Feb. 2021 Those nutria need to go, and hell, $6 a tail is pretty good, too. Danny Hinton, Outdoor Life, 29 Dec. 2020 State wildlife teams are at a critical juncture in their battle to keep the burrowing nutria from undermining roads, canals and water supplies at several spots in the Central Valley. Kurtis Alexander, SFChronicle.com, 30 Oct. 2020 State officials are also embarking upon a Judas nutria project in which one animal is caught, sterilized and collared, then put back in the wild to lead biologists to the colony. Kurtis Alexander, SFChronicle.com, 30 Oct. 2020 One of the causes of the area’s land erosion is due to the habits of nutria, a non-native swamp rat. National Geographic, 20 May 2020 Deputy editor Gerry Bethge hunted nutria with Lambert earlier this year and shed some light on just one of the many environmental challenges the marsh is facing. Alex Robinson, Outdoor Life, 22 Apr. 2020 That includes all game animals, birds and furbearers, including bear, beaver, coyote, deer, opossum, rabbit, raccoon, squirrel, nutria, fox, mountain lion, groundhog, bobcat, Red Wolf, feral swine, and alligator. Leada Gore | Lgore@al.com, al, 15 Jan. 2020 The company could get rid of more than 55,000 nutria each year. Victoria Dodge, chicagotribune.com, 17 Sep. 2019 See More
Carlie Wells, NOLA.com, 2 Feb. 2021 Those nutria need to go, and hell, $6 a tail is pretty good, too. Danny Hinton, Outdoor Life, 29 Dec. 2020 State wildlife teams are at a critical juncture in their battle to keep the burrowing nutria from undermining roads, canals and water supplies at several spots in the Central Valley. Kurtis Alexander, SFChronicle.com, 30 Oct. 2020 State officials are also embarking upon a Judas nutria project in which one animal is caught, sterilized and collared, then put back in the wild to lead biologists to the colony. Kurtis Alexander, SFChronicle.com, 30 Oct. 2020 One of the causes of the area’s land erosion is due to the habits of nutria, a non-native swamp rat. National Geographic, 20 May 2020 Deputy editor Gerry Bethge hunted nutria with Lambert earlier this year and shed some light on just one of the many environmental challenges the marsh is facing. Alex Robinson, Outdoor Life, 22 Apr. 2020 That includes all game animals, birds and furbearers, including bear, beaver, coyote, deer, opossum, rabbit, raccoon, squirrel, nutria, fox, mountain lion, groundhog, bobcat, Red Wolf, feral swine, and alligator. Leada Gore | Lgore@al.com, al, 15 Jan. 2020 The company could get rid of more than 55,000 nutria each year. Victoria Dodge, chicagotribune.com, 17 Sep. 2019 See More Word History
Etymology
borrowed from American Spanish, from Spanish, "otter," altered (with n of uncertain origin) from Latin lutra — more at otter
Note: Joan Coromines (Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 1981) suggests that Greek énydris "otter" may have been the source of the n in nutria; he notes dialectal forms such as lóndriga that maintain l.
First Known Use
1811, in the meaning defined at sense 1