capybara

[kap-uh-bahr-uh] Origin

cap·y·ba·ra

[kap-uh-bahr-uh]
noun
a South American tailless rodent, Hydrochaeris hydrochaeris, living along the banks of rivers and lakes, having partly webbed feet: the largest living rodent.
Also, capibara.


Origin:
1765–75; < Neo-Latin < Portuguese capibara < Tupi
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To capybara

00:10

00:09

00:08

00:07

00:06

00:05

00:04

00:03

00:02

00:01

Capybara is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
a fool or simpleton; ninny.
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.
Collins
World English Dictionary
capybara (ˌkæpɪˈbɑːrə)
 
n
the largest rodent: a pig-sized amphibious hystricomorph, Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris, resembling a guinea pig and inhabiting river banks in Central and South America: family Hydrochoeridae
 
[C18: from Portuguese capibara, from Tupi]

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

capybara
1774, from some Tupi (Brazilian) native name.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
Dictionary.com, LLC. Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved.
  • Please Login or Sign Up to use the Recent Searches feature
FAVORITES
RECENT