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chevrotain

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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WOTD – 22 May 2022

Etymology

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The lesser Malay chevrotain (Tragulus kanchil)

Borrowed from French chevrotain, chevrotin (“ruminant of the family Tragulidae”), the diminutive of Old French chevrot (“young goat, kid”), itself a diminutive of chievre (“goat”) (modern French chèvre (“she-goat”)) + -ot (diminutive suffix).[1] Chievre is derived from Latin capra (“she-goat”), from caper (“billy goat, he-goat”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kápros (“billy goat, he-goat”)) + -a (suffix forming feminine counterparts of masculine nouns).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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chevrotain (plural chevrotains)

  2. Any of several small hornless ruminants of the family Tragulidae, native to tropical rainforests of South and Southeast Asia, and Central and West Africa.
    Synonyms: mouse deer, tragulid
    • 1791, Oliver Goldsmith, “Of Animals of the Sheep and Goat Kind”, in An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature. […], new edition, volume III, London: […] F[rancis] Wingrave, successor to Mr. [John] Nourse, […], →OCLC, page 76:
      To this vve may add the Chevrotin, or little Guinea Deer, vvhich is the leaſt of all cloven-footed quadrupeds, and perhaps the moſt beautiful; its legs, at the ſmalleſt part, are not much thicker than the ſhank of a tobacco-pipe; it is about ſeven inches high, and about tvvelve from the point of the noſe to the inſertion of the tail.

Hyponyms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ “chevrotain | chevrotin, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2019; “chevrotain, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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