rhinocerot

English

Alternative forms

• rhinocerote

Etymology

From the inflected stem of Latin rhinoceros. Compare Middle French rhinocerote, obsolete Italian rinocerote.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɹaɪˈnɒsəɹɒt/

Noun

rhinocerot (plural rhinocerots or (archaic) rhinocerotes)

1. (now rare) The rhinoceros. [from 14th c.]
   • 1551, Edward Topsell, The Historie of Foure-footed Beastes, translation of Historiae Animalium de Quadrupedibus viviparis by Conrad Gesner, published 1607:

     Antoninus Pius the Emperor, did give many gifts unto the people, amongst which were both Tigers and Rhinocerots, (saith Iulius Capitalinus in his life).

   • 1625, Samuel Purchas, Hakluytus Posthumus, J MacLehose, published 1905, page 63:

     Beyond that Country of Birds, is another wilde and mountainous, where abide many creatures much worse than those Birds, Elephants, Rhinocerotes, Lions, Wild-swine, Buffals, and Wild-kine.

   • 1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia, section XL:

     I lately observ'd, that all the teeth of a Rhinocerot, which grow on either side of its mouth, are join'd into one large bone, the weight of one of which I found to be neer eleven pound Haverdupois.

   • 1896, HW Seager, editor, Natural History in Shakespeare’s Time, Kessinger, published 2004, page 76:

     The Indians have a kind of Crocodile in Ganges, which hath a horn growing out of his nose like a Rhinocerot

References

OED Third Edition, June 2010