Higgs bison

English

Etymology

Blend of Higgs boson +‎ bison. From being elusive, not being found after a long search, akin to how the Higgs boson proved elusive to find, taking a very long search. Higgs was chosen due to the similarity between boson and bison, and its characteristic mysteriousness, due to not being found.[1][2]

Noun

Higgs bison (plural Higgs bisons)

  1. (informal, paleontology, biology, bovines) The ancestor of the European bison (Bison bonasus), a species originating from the hybridization of the aurochs (Bos primigenius) and the steppe bison (Bison priscus).

References
  1. Sarah Kaplan (18 October 2016), “Higgs bison mystery solved with help of ancient cave paintings”, in Washington Post
  2. Higgs Bison Is The Missing Link In European Bison Ancestral Tree, written by Rebecca Hersher, NPR, 18 October 2016
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.