Babiroussa

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A large wild swine native to Indonesia with distinctive upward-curving tusks that sometimes pierce through the skin of its snout
2. An Indonesian wild boar distinguished by its prominent curved tusks and stocky build, related to other pig species but with unique dental features
3. A hefty wild pig from Indonesian islands characterized by elongated tusks that curve upward and backward in a distinctive spiral pattern

Etymology: The babiroussa is a wild pig of Indonesia's islands, and its name is a compound from Malay meaning "deer hog," a description of its long, curving tusks that seem to sprout upward from the snout. The Malay "babi" means pig and "rusa" means deer, so the animal was named for a creature it resembles only in its tusks. English took the name through French, which is why the word carries a French shape even though its ancestry runs through the languages of the Malay archipelago. The upper tusks of the male are the strangest feature of the name's referent. They grow through the skin of the snout and curl back toward the animal's face, and in older animals they can nearly complete a circle. The word's compound structure makes this image plain: a pig whose tusks look like the antlers of a deer, a comparison that a Malay speaker would reach for at once.

Synonyms: babirusa