1398, from L., from Gk. katobleps, from kato "downward" + blepein "to look." Name given by ancient authors to some African animal.
"A wylde beest that hyghte Catoblefas and hath a lytyll body and nyce in all membres and a grete heed hangynge alway to-warde the erth." [John of Trevisa, transl. of Bartholomew de Glanville's "De proprietatibus rerum," 1398]
