musth

Etymology

Persian مست (mast, “drunk, inebriated”).

noun

  1. A time during which male elephants exhibit increased levels of sexual activity and aggressiveness and often secrete leaking temporin from the sides of their heads.
    At MalaMala we are charged by a bull elephant. The late sun reflecting on the moisture at his temporal gland shows he is in musth, and mad with lust, and we have inadvertently separated him from the breeding cows of his desire. 2006, Peter Godwin, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa
  2. An elephant in this sexual and aggressive state.

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