linguistic:voice_change, structural:expansion, information:filtering, structural:scholar_edition
Naming and etymology

The first published usage of the word "coyote" (which is a Spanish borrowing of its Nahuatl name coyōtl) comes from the historian Francisco Javier Clavijero 's Historia de México in 1780. The first time it was used in English occurred in William Bullock 's Six months' residence and travels in Mexico (1824), where it is variously transcribed as cayjotte and cocyotie. The word's spelling was standardized as "coyote" by the 1880s.

The English pronunciation is heard both as a two-syllable word (with the final "e" silent) and as three-syllables (with the final "e" pronounced), with a tendency for the three-syllable pronunciation in eastern states and near the Mexican border, and outside the United States, with two syllables in western and central states.

Alternative English names for the coyote include "prairie wolf", "brush wolf", "cased wolf", "little wolf" and "American jackal". Its binomial name Canis latrans translates to "barking dog", a reference to the many vocalizations they produce.