aquarium
pronunciation
How to pronounce aquarium in British English:
UK [əˈkweəriəm]
How to pronounce aquarium in American English:
US [əˈkweriəm]
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- Noun:
- a tank or pool or bowl filled with water for keeping live fish and underwater animals
Word Origin
- aquarium
- aquarium: [19] Aquarium is a modern adaptation of the neuter form of the Latin adjective aquārius ‘watery’ (a noun aquārium existed in Roman times, but it meant ‘place where cattle drink’). Its model was vivarium, a 16th-century word for a ‘place for keeping live animals’. This was the term first pressed into service to describe such a place used for displaying fish and other aquatic life: in 1853 the magazine Athenaeum reported that ‘the new Fish house at the London Zoo has received the somewhat curious title of the “Marine Vivarium”’; and in the following year the guidebook to the Zoological Gardens called it the ‘Aquatic Vivarium’.Within a year or two of this, however, the term aquarium had been coined and apparently established.
- aquarium (n.)
- 1830, noun use of neuter of Latin aquarius "pertaining to water," as a noun, "water-carrier," genitive of aqua "water" (see aqua-). The word existed in Latin, but there it meant "drinking place for cattle." Originally especially for growing aquatic plants; An earlier attempt at a name for "fish tank" was marine vivarium.
Example
- 1. Beautiful computer case looks and functions like a real aquarium .
- 2. The world 's first public aquarium opened in may 1853 .
- 3. One exciting area of the aquarium is the shark tunnel .
- 4. Beautiful aquarium by mathieu lehanneur breeds freshwater fish and vegetables .
- 5. In an marine aquarium south of tokyo , christmas decorations are up .