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Giraffe

 [juh-raf or, especially Brit., -rahf]   Example Sentences Origin

gi·raffe

   [juh-raf or, especially Brit., -rahf]
noun
1.
a tall, long-necked, spotted ruminant, Giraffa camelopardalis, of Africa: the tallest living quadruped animal.
2.
(initial capital letter) Astronomy. the constellation Camelopardalis.
Origin:
1585–95; < French girafe < Italian giraffa < dialectal Arabic zirāfah, perhaps < Persian zurnāpā
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Giraffe is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.
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Example Sentences
  • All this to result in the appearance of a human baby and never a little duck, a giraffe or a butterfly.
  • Stunning footage of giraffe framed by a beautiful sunset.
  • Some pterosaurs, on the other hand, were the size of a giraffe.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
giraffe (dʒɪˈrɑːf, -ˈræf)
 
—n , pl -raffes, -raffe
a large ruminant mammal, Giraffa camelopardalis, inhabiting savannas of tropical Africa: the tallest mammal, with very long legs and neck and a colouring of regular reddish-brown patches on a beige ground: family Giraffidae
 
[C17: from Italian giraffa, from Arabic zarāfah, probably of African origin]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

giraffe
1594, from It. giraffa, from Ar. zarafa, probably from an African language. Earlier M.E. spellings varied wildly, depending on the source, including jarraf, ziraph, and gerfauntz, the last apparently reflecting some confusion with olifaunt "elephant." Replaced earlier camelopard, a compound of
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camel (for the long neck) and pard (1) "leopard" (for the spots).
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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