The name is from two ancient Greek words that both approximately mean ‘weasel’: galid- (see Galidia) and iktis.[2] Compare the word Galictis (grison, a closer relative of the weasel).
^Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary attributes it to "NL, fr. Gk galideus young weasel + iktis yellow-breasted marten [an ambiguous common name that might be the weasel]." However, Lewis and Short describes ictis (ἴκτις) as simply "a kind of weasel".[1]Archived 2013-11-02 at the Wayback MachineBrill's New Pauly likewise also writes that "ἴκτις/íktis may be a weasel"[2].