/puy"keuh/ , n.
any of several small, brown to gray tailless mammals of the genus Ochotona, resembling rabbits with short ears and legs and inhabiting western mountains of North America and parts of eastern Europe and Asia.
[ 1820-30; recorded by the German naturalist P.S. Pallas (1741-1811) as the name for the animal in Evenki; cf. Evenki (N Baikal dial.) pikacan a name for the tree creeper ( Certhia familiaris ), appar. based on Russ píkat' to squeak, peep (cf. Russ pishchúkha a name for both the tree creeper and the pika, which emits a shrill sound) ]