Rhinozeros

German

Alternative forms

• Rhinoceros (superseded spelling)
• Rhinozer, Rhinocer (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle High German rinōceros, from Latin rhīnocerōs, from Ancient Greek ῥῑνόκερως (rhīnókerōs, literally “nose-horned”). The inflected forms in -rosses, -rösser are by association with unrelated Ross (“horse”); the same might also apply to the neuter gender.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁiˈnoːtsəʁɔs/

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

Noun

Rhinozeros n (strong, genitive Rhinozeros or (rare) Rhinozerosses, plural Rhinozerosse or (rare) Rhinozerösser) (dated higher register, now rare and chiefly literary)

1. synonym of Nashorn (“rhinoceros”)

Usage notes

• This word was predominant over the loan translation Nashorn until ca. 1870. Nowadays it is generally used only for stylistic effect, typically for variation when Nashorn has already occurred in the context.

Declension

Declension of Rhinozeros [neuter, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	das	Rhinozeros	die	Rhinozerosse, Rhinozerösser1
genitive	eines	des	Rhinozeros, Rhinozerosses1	der	Rhinozerosse, Rhinozerösser1
dative	einem	dem	Rhinozeros, Rhinozerosse1,2	den	Rhinozerossen, Rhinozerössern1
accusative	ein	das	Rhinozeros	die	Rhinozerosse, Rhinozerösser1

¹Rare.
²Now rare, see notes.

Further reading

• “Rhinozeros”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache‎^[1] (in German)