Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Rhinoceros
/raɪˈnɑsərəs/noun
A heavy thick-skinned herbivore of Africa and Asia with one or two horns on its snout.
The Greek roots
ῥίς, ῥινός
rhís, rhinós
nose
κέρας
kéras
horn
Literally: “nose horn”
The story of the word
The name is a plain description from Greeks who had seen the animal in Egypt or in a triumph. The horn is not bone or ivory but compacted keratin, the same protein as hair and fingernails, which is what κέρας names in triceratops and in keratin itself. The nose root turns up in medicine wherever the subject is noses, from rhinitis to rhinoplasty.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
Same family
rhinitisrhinoplastykeratintriceratops
In a sentence
The rhinoceros stood in the shade for an hour and moved twice.