hippopotamus
Pluralhippopotami, hippopotamuses, hippopotamus
- 1A very large, plant-eating African mammal with thick skin, short legs, and a huge mouth, that spends much of its time in rivers and lakes; especially the common hippopotamus, Hippopotamus amphibius, of the family Hippopotamidae.
The hippopotamus is among the most dangerous large animals in Africa.
By day a hippopotamus stays submerged in the river, grazing on land only after dark.
UsageThe usual plural is hippopotamuses; hippopotami is also correct. In everyday talk, people often say hippo.
Similarhippo
Note
Three plurals are in use: hippopotamuses, the unchanged hippopotamus, and hippopotami, which keeps the Latin shape and has a literary ring, as in H. Rider Haggard's She: A History of Adventure (1886–87): "the first hippopotami that we had ever seen."
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Origin
Ancient Greek hippopótamos joined híppos ("horse") and potamós ("river"). English took it from Latin and New Latin hippopotamus, and it pushed out the older English word nicker, from Old English nicor.