karakulak

Turkish karakulak combines kara ('black') and kulak ('ear'). The caracal (Caracal caracal) has long, black-tufted ears that are its most distinctive feature — and, functionally, among its most important. The ear tufts may help direct sound, improve camouflage, or communicate with other caracals. Turkish and Persian hunters prized the animal for its speed and agility.

In Mughal India, caracals were trained for bird-hunting, a sport called 'caracal coursing.' A trained caracal could leap into a flock of pigeons and bring down multiple birds in a single bound — the origin of the phrase 'to put the cat among the pigeons.' Akbar the Great reportedly kept a stable of trained caracals at his court in the late 1500s.

The word entered European languages through French in the 1760s, based on the Turkish original. Buffon, the French naturalist, used caracal in his Histoire Naturelle (1761). English adopted it directly. Before the Turkish name became standard, Europeans had variously called the animal the 'Persian lynx,' the 'African lynx,' or the 'red cat.'

The caracal is neither a lynx nor exclusively African or Persian. It ranges from South Africa to Central Asia. It is among the fastest small cats, capable of leaping 10 feet vertically from a standing position. The Turkish name stuck because it did exactly what a good name should: it pointed to the thing that makes this animal unmistakable.