reindeer
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English
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fd/Caribou.jpg/220px-Caribou.jpg)
Etymology
[edit]From Middle English reyndere, reynder, rayne-dere, from Old Norse hreindýri (“reindeer”), from hreinn (“reindeer”) + dýr (“animal”). Compare Dutch rendier (“reindeer”), German Renntier (“reindeer”), Swedish rendjur (“reindeer”), Danish rensdyr (“reindeer”). Related also to displaced Old English hrān (“reindeer”). Unrelated to rein.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈɹeɪndɪə/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈɹeɪndɪɹ/
Audio (General American): (file) - Rhymes: -eɪndɪə(ɹ)
- Hyphenation: rein‧deer
Noun
[edit]reindeer (plural reindeer or reindeers)
- (plural: reindeer) Any Arctic and subarctic-dwelling deer of the species Rangifer tarandus, with a number of subspecies.
- Santa Claus' sleigh is supposedly pulled by eight reindeer
- 1768, D[aniel] Fenning, “LAPLAND”, in The Royal English Dictionary; or, A Treasury of the English Language, 3rd improved edition, London: Printed for R. Baldwin, Hawes and Co., T. Caslon, S. Crowder, J. Johnson, Wilson and Fell, Robinson and Roberts, and B. Collins, →OCLC:
- Here is a prodigious number of wild beaſts, as ſtags, bears, wolves, foxes of various colours, martens, hares, glittens, beavers, otters, elk, and rein deer: the latter is leſs than a stag.
- 2013 March, Nancy Langston, “Mining the Boreal North”, in American Scientist[1], volume 101, number 2, archived from the original on 13 April 2016, page 98:
- Reindeer are well suited to the taiga’s frigid winters. They can maintain a thermogradient between body core and the environment of up to 100 degrees, in part because of insulation provided by their fur, and in part because of counter-current vascular heat exchange systems in their legs and nasal passages.
- (plural: reindeers, biology) Any species, subspecies, ecotype, or other scientific grouping of such animals.
Hyponyms
[edit]Santa Claus's reindeer
Derived terms
[edit]- Arctic reindeer (†R. t. eogroenlandicus)
- busk reindeer (R. t. buskensis)
- Finnish forest reindeer (R. t. fennicus)
- Kamchatkan reindeer (R. t. phylarchus)
- mountain reindeer (R. t. tarandus)
- Novaya Zemlya reindeer (R. t. pearsoni)
- reindeer calf
- reindeer corn
- reindeer games
- reindeer lichen (Cladonia spp.)
- reindeer moss (Cladonia spp.)
- reindeer spitz
- Siberian forest reindeer (R. t. valentinae)
- Siberian tundra reindeer (R. t. sibiricus)
- Svalbard reindeer (R. t. platyrhynchus)
- wild reindeer (R. t. tarandus)
Translations
[edit]Rangifer tarandus
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Verb
[edit]reindeer (third-person singular simple present reindeers, present participle reindeering, simple past and past participle reindeered)
- To herd or farm reindeer
Further reading
[edit]Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old Norse
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/eɪndɪə(ɹ)
- Rhymes:English/eɪndɪə(ɹ)/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English indeclinable nouns
- English nouns with irregular plurals
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- en:Biology
- English verbs
- en:Reindeers