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rhinoceros

rye-NOSS-er-us · noun

Ancient GreekLatinEnglish

Origin

From Latin rhīnocerōs, borrowed from Ancient Greek ῥῑνόκερως (rhīnókerōs, 'nose-horned'), itself built from ῥῑ́ς/ῥῑνός (rhī́s/rhīnós, 'nose') plus κέρας (kéras, 'horn').

Journey

The name has stayed remarkably literal — Greek speakers looked at the animal, saw a horn sitting on its nose, and named it exactly that.

Related words

The facts given don't support tracing this to any other English cognate beyond its direct descent through Latin and Greek.

More words

From Ancient Greek

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