The Abominable Snowman, or yeti, is one of the truly great
unknown animals of the twentieth century. It is a large hairy
biped that lives in the Himalayan region of Asia ... The story
of the Abominable Snowman is filled with mysteries great and
small, and one of the most difficult of all is how it got that
awful name. The creature is neither particularly abominable,
nor does it necessarily live in the snows. _Yeti_ is a Tibetan
word which may apply either to a real, but unknown animal of
the Himalayas, or to a mountain spirit or demon -- no one is
quite sure which. And after nearly half a century in which
Westerners have trampled around looking for the yeti, and
asking all sorts of questions, the original native traditions
concerning the creature have become even more muddled and
confused.
[ The Encyclopedia of Monsters, by Daniel Cohen ]