I actually don’t think this is totally accurate. Possum is an alternate pronunciation/spelling of opossum. According to this thinly sourced Wikipedia article:
The common name “possum” for various Phalangeriformes species derives from the creatures’ resemblance to the opossums of the Americas… However, although opossums are also marsupials, Australasian possums are more closely related to other Australasian marsupials such as kangaroos.
Can anyone confirm this one way or the other?
It actually touches on that in the article.
Even Merriam-Webster notes that both names colloquially refer to the Virginia opossum present in North America and that the word “opossum” can be pronounced with its first syllable voiced or silent. Both possums and opossums have a flexible diet and eat various plants and animal matter scavenged from their surroundings. Despite these similarities, however, possums and opossums are, in fact, different animals.
I just assumed Opossums were Irish.
Little weird that this is on PBS home improvement presenter Bob Vila’s website.
Tldr; their name is basically the same, their face is basically the same, but the rest is different.
TIL
me2. I thought it was one of those things where there were just two terms and maybe one was more correct.
