means a small, sleek, semi-aquatic weasel-like carnivore prized for its dense fur, which is farmed for coats and has become an invasive predator where it escapes into the wild.

from From Swedish 'menk' or 'mänk', the name for the animal, which English borrowed in the late Middle Ages — the word arrived attached to the pelt as much as the creature, the trade carrying the name across the North Sea.