tragelaphus

See also: Tragelaphus

English

Etymology

From Latin tragelaphus.

Noun

tragelaphus (plural tragelaphi)

1. A fictional animal, half goat, half stag, used by the philosopher Aristotle as an example of something that is knowable even though it does not exist.
   • 1861, Plutarch, Plutarch's Lives: The Translation Called Dryden's, page 23:

     The canathrum, as they call it, is a chair or chariot made of wood, in the shape of a griffin, or tragelaphus, on which the children and young virgins are carried in processions.

Derived terms

• tragelaphic

Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek τραγέλαφος (tragélaphos, “mythical goat-stag”), from τράγος (trágos, “billy goat”) +‎ ἔλαφος (élaphos, “deer”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /traˈɡe.la.pʰus/, [t̪räˈɡɛɫ̪äpʰʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /traˈd͡ʒe.la.fus/, [t̪räˈd͡ʒɛːläfus]

Noun

tragelaphus m (genitive tragelaphī); second declension

1. goat-stag (a kind of antelope with a beard like a goat)

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	tragelaphus	tragelaphī
Genitive	tragelaphī	tragelaphōrum
Dative	tragelaphō	tragelaphīs
Accusative	tragelaphum	tragelaphōs
Ablative	tragelaphō	tragelaphīs
Vocative	tragelaphe	tragelaphī

Descendants

• Translingual: Tragelaphus

References

• “tragelaphus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• tragelaphus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• tragelaphus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.