'fossa' (animal name) was borrowed into scientific/vernacular English more recently from Malagasy 'fosa' (the local name for the animal), later rendered in Latinized form for the species name 'Cryptoprocta ferox'. 'fossa' (anatomical term) originates from Latin 'fossa' meaning 'ditch' or 'trench', itself from the verb 'fodere' meaning 'to dig'.

The zoological name entered European languages via Malagasy and scientific Latin in the 18th–19th centuries; the anatomical sense came into English from Classical and Medieval Latin anatomical terminology (Latin 'fossa'), which was used unchanged in New Latin and English anatomical vocabulary.

Originally in Latin it meant 'ditch' or 'trench'; over time the term was specialized in anatomy to mean a hollow or depression in a bone or organ, while an unrelated borrowing from Malagasy produced the modern zoological name for the Malagasy carnivore 'fossa'.