kijetesantakalu

meaning

any animal from the Procyonidae family, such as raccoons, coatis, kinkajous, olingos, ringtails and cacomistles | ALT any animal from the Musteloidea superfamily, including raccoons, weasels, otters, skunks, and red pandas

semantic space · lipamanka

kijetesantakalu is a beloved april fool's joke coined by Sonja Lang in 2009. The whole point is to have one word that represents a uselessly specific set of objects. At the time, kijetesantakalu could only refer to procyonids (raccoons and other very similar animals). In 2021, nano pushed for the semantic space to be widened enough to include ferrets, and this push was so successful that nowadays kijetesantakalu is used to describe all musteloids (weasels, otters, minks, red pandas, wolverines, skunks, badgers, etc).

I would like to bring it back to the community's attention here and now that there are plans for kijetesantakalu's semantic space to expand as time progresses. In 2029-2031, kijetesantakalu will begin to refer to any animal in Arctoidea, which includes seals and bears. This is perhaps the only word in any language with a planned semantic drift. We will see how successful it is. It would be really funny.

This definition was added on April 1st, 2025.