Erdferkel

German

Erdferkel

Etymology

From Erde (“earth”) +‎ Ferkel (“piglet”), after South African Dutch aardvarken. First described in German by Peter Kolbe in 1719, who called it Erdschwein, a more literal calque. The form Erdferkel uses a word that is cognate with Dutch varken (“pig”) but has a slightly different sense.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈeːrtˌfɛrkəl/, [ˈʔeːɐ̯tˌfɛʁ.kl̩], [ˈʔɛɐ̯tˌfɛɐ̯.kl̩]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Erd‧fer‧kel

Noun

Erdferkel n (strong, genitive Erdferkels, plural Erdferkel)

1. aardvark, earth pig

Declension

Declension of Erdferkel [neuter, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	das	Erdferkel	die	Erdferkel
genitive	eines	des	Erdferkels	der	Erdferkel
dative	einem	dem	Erdferkel	den	Erdferkeln
accusative	ein	das	Erdferkel	die	Erdferkel

Further reading

• “Erdferkel” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Erdferkel” in Duden online
• “Erdferkel”, in Online-Wortschatz-Informationssystem Deutsch (in German), Mannheim: Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, 2008–
• “Erdferkel” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon