hippopotamus

• hippopotamos (archaic), hippotamus (obsolete)

From Latin and New Latin hippopotamus, from Ancient Greek ἱπποπόταμος (hippopótamos), from ἵππος (híppos, “horse”) (English hippo-) + ποταμός (potamós, “river”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌhɪ.pə.ˈpɒ.tə.məs/

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• Hyphenation: hip‧po‧po‧ta‧mus

hippopotamus (plural hippopotami or hippopotamuses or hippopotamus)

1. A large, semi-aquatic, herbivorous (plant-eating) African mammal (Hippopotamus amphibius; common hippopotamus).
   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, OCLC 1167497017:

     These were the first hippopotami that we had ever seen, and, to judge by their insatiable curiosity, I should judge that we were the first white men that they had ever seen.

   Synonyms: hippo, river horse

2. Any similar animal of the family Hippopotamidae.

• pygmy hippopotamus (Hexaprotodon liberiensis, syn. Choeropsis liberiensis)

From Ancient Greek ἱπποπόταμος (hippopótamos), from ἵππος (híppos, “horse”) + ποταμός (potamós, “river”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /hip.poˈpo.ta.mus/, [hɪpːɔˈpɔt̪ämʊs̠]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ip.poˈpo.ta.mus/, [ipːoˈpɔːt̪ämus]

hippopotamus m (genitive hippopotamī); second declension

1. a hippopotamus

Second-declension noun.

• English: hippopotamus
• Portuguese: hipopótamo
• Spanish: hipopótamo

• “hippopotamus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• hippopotamus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette