† petauristn.

Etymology: < French pétauriste tightrope dancer (1624), kind of flying squirrel (1826), or its etymon classical Latin petauristēs or petaurista acrobat, tumbler < Hellenistic Greek πετευριστής < πετευρίζεσθαι to perform acrobatic feats ( < ancient Greek πέτευρον roosting perch, in Byzantine Greek also piece of apparatus used by an acrobat (4th cent.; of unknown origin: see note below) + -ίζεσθαι : see -ize suffix) + -ιστής -ist suffix. With sense 2 compare petaurine adj., petauristine adj., and scientific Latin forms cited at those entries.The forms πέταυρον and πεταυριστής are attested in Byzantine Greek, but probably represent Latin influence. Compare classical Latin petaurum piece of apparatus used by an acrobat, earliest as peteurum (2nd cent. b.c.; < Greek), which suggests the existence of the acrobatic sense in Greek significantly earlier than it is attested. N.E.D. (1905) gives the pronunciation as (pĭtǭ·rist) /pᵻˈtɔːrɪst/.