chevrotain

Borrowed from French chevrotain, chevrotin (“ruminant of the family Tragulidae”), the diminutive of Old French chevrot (“young goat, kid”), itself a diminutive of chievre (“goat”) (modern French chèvre (“she-goat”)) + -ot (diminutive suffix).^[1] Chievre is derived from Latin capra (“she-goat”), from caper (“billy goat, he-goat”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kápros (“billy goat, he-goat”)) + -a (suffix forming feminine counterparts of masculine nouns).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈʃɛvɹə(ʊ)teɪn/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈʃɛvɹəˌteɪn/
• Hyphenation: che‧vrot‧ain

chevrotain (plural chevrotains)

1. Any of several small hornless ruminants of the family Tragulidae, native to tropical rainforests of South and Southeast Asia, and Central and West Africa.
   • 1791, Oliver Goldsmith, “Of Animals of the Sheep and Goat Kind”, in An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature. […], new edition, volume III, London: […] F[rancis] Wingrave, successor to Mr. [John] Nourse, […], →OCLC, page 76:

     To this vve may add the Chevrotin, or little Guinea Deer, vvhich is the leaſt of all cloven-footed quadrupeds, and perhaps the moſt beautiful; its legs, at the ſmalleſt part, are not much thicker than the ſhank of a tobacco-pipe; it is about ſeven inches high, and about tvvelve from the point of the noſe to the inſertion of the tail.

• mouse deer

• chevrotain on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Category:Tragulidae on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• Tragulidae on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• “chevrotain”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.