hippopotamus

• hippopotamos (archaic)
• hippotamus (misspelling, otherwise obsolete)

From Latin and New Latin hippopotamus, from Ancient Greek ἱπποπόταμος (hippopótamos), from ἵππος (híppos, “horse”) (English hippo-) + ποταμός (potamós, “river”). Displaced nicker, from Old English nicor.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌhɪp.əˈpɒt.ə.məs/
• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˌhɪp.əˈpɑ.tə.məs/, [ˌhɪp.əˈpɑ.ɾə.məs]

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (Philippines) IPA^(key): /hɪ.poˈpo.ta.mʊs/, /hɪ.po.poˈta.mʊs/
• (Ghana) IPA^(key): /ˌhi.po̞.po̞ˈte̞ː.mo̞s/
• (Nigeria) IPA^(key): /ˌhi.poˈpo.te.mɔs/
• Hyphenation: hip‧po‧po‧ta‧mus

hippopotamus (plural hippopotami or hippopotamuses or hippopotamus)

2. A semi-aquatic, herbivorous, African hoofed mammal of the family Hippopotamidae.

   Synonyms: hippo, river horse

3. The common hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius)
   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     These were the first hippopotami that we had ever seen, and, to judge by their insatiable curiosity, I should judge that we were the first white men that they had ever seen.

• (any of family Hippopotamidae): hippopotamid

From Ancient Greek ἱπποπόταμος (hippopótamos), from ἵππος (híppos, “horse”) + ποταμός (potamós, “river”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [hɪp.pɔˈpɔ.ta.mʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ip.poˈpɔː.t̪a.mus]

hippopotamus m (genitive hippopotamī); second declension

1. a hippopotamus

Second-declension noun.

• “hippopotamus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• hippopotamus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.