hippopotamus
pronunciation
How to pronounce hippopotamus in British English:
UK [ˌhɪpəˈpɒtəməs]
How to pronounce hippopotamus in American English:
US [ˌhɪpəˈpɑtəməs]
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- Noun:
- massive thick-skinned herbivorous animal living in or around rivers of tropical Africa
Word Origin
- hippopotamus
- hippopotamus: [16] Etymologically, a hippopotamus is a ‘river horse’. The word comes, via Latin, from late Greek hippopótamos, a lexicalization of an earlier phrase híppos ho potámios, literally ‘horse of the river’. Other English descendants of híppos (a relative of Latin equus ‘horse’) include hippodrome [16], from a Greek compound that meant originally ‘horse-race’ (-drome occurs also in aerodrome and dromedary), and the name Philip, literally ‘lover of horses’. The abbreviation hippo, incidentally, dates from the mid-19th century.=> equine, hippodrome
- hippopotamus (n.)
- 1560s, from Late Latin hippopotamus, from Greek hippopotamus "riverhorse" (earlier ho hippos ho potamios "the horse of the river"), from hippos "horse" (see equine) + potamos "river, rushing water" (see potamo-). Replaced Middle English ypotame (c. 1300), which is from the same source but via Old French. Glossed in Old English as sæhengest.Ypotamos comen flyngynge. ... Grete bestes and griselich ["Kyng Alisaunder," c. 1300]
Example
- 1. A hippopotamus surfs the waves off the coast of gabon .
- 2. This is a hippopotamus skull , one of four held by university college london .
- 3. The achievement goes not to the elephant , the hippopotamus or even the mighty sperm whale .
- 4. Only two-and-a-half weeks old but already weighing in at 40kg ( 88lb ) a baby hippopotamus swims alongside her mother , kathi .
- 5. Visitors can watch a hippopotamus in the west african river experience area of the adventure aquarium .