I have a skunk clan as yard mates and the current resident seems very active lately. She may have insomnia. She was on the deck twice last night and then an hour later, after I realized that the chirping I was hearing wasn’t coming from the TV show, I opened the door and was assaulted by the reek of her musk.

And this morning, at least a half hour after light, there she was again. I had to “ah hem” to get her away from my office door. It sounded like she took some time to settle down below the floor. She may have been squabbling with another critter. It’s not the right season, but maybe she has kits.

I did some quick research when I realized I had these close neighbors. I read that skunks don’t have natural predators (except for a few owls) but also that they don’t spray readily. They can only store about 5 charges of effluvia and it takes half a day to make more, so they use it sparingly. They mostly den alone. Since I’ve occasionally seen young ones, I conclude my main tenant is a single mom like me, usually living without offspring.

We’re aware of one another. I’m not anticipating getting sprayed myself. I don’t mind the odor when it’s air-diluted.

She’s got beautiful fur. Her snout is small and her forepaws are powerful; I can tell she’s a good digger. She can flatten her body like a cat or a mouse when she wants to. I’ve seen her flop almost as flat as a mat on my front boardwalk, in midday sun. Insomniac.

I wondered where the name came from, so I looked it up. My old print dictionary says it’s a contraction of an American Indian word: segonku. Online sources give more information. Various spellings are offered. Origin is attributed to Abenaki or another Algonquian tongue. Although a couple of skunk varieties come from Indonesia and the Philippines, most are native Americans.

Skunks have been called polecats. It appears that most familiar languages call the animal after its Latin name. The striped skunk is Mephitis mephitis, and the French call the animal mouffette. In Spanish it’s mofeta or zorrillo (little fox).

It’s obvious why some marijuana is called skunk weed. But so far I can’t discover why as a verb the word means to defeat overwhelmingly and prevent from scoring. You got skunked suggests you stink?