Resembling or similar to a civet (a small carnivorous mammal); having the characteristics, appearance, or smell of a civet.
Compound of civet (from Arabic zabād, the animal's musk) and -like (meaning 'resembling'). Civet entered English via French and Arabic in the medieval period.
Civets produce a musk from their scent glands that was worth its weight in gold in medieval times—it was the reason traders brought the animals across continents, so 'civetlike' originally meant 'expensive, desirable, and fragrant.'
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