civet (mammal), civet (perfume) زباد zabād, civet perfume, a musky perfume excreted from a gland in قطط الزباد qatat al-zabād = "civet cats". The medieval Arabs obtained civet from the African civet and from various civets of the Indies.[23] The word is in 15th-century Italian as zibetto = "civet perfume".[2] Records of the form civet start in Catalan 1372 and French 1401[10] (cf. e.g. Latin liber -> French livre; Arabic al-qobba -> Spanish alcoba -> French alcove). . Incidentally the botanical genus Abelmoschus got its name from Arabic حبّ المسك habb el-misk = "musk seed", a seed yielding a musky perfume.[24]