Zebras

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A member of the horse family recognized for its distinctive black and white stripes; a species native to Africa, known for living in herds; an animal often associated with grassland and savanna habitats
2. A unique equine species characterized by its striped coat; found primarily in sub-Saharan Africa, forming social groups; commonly depicted in wildlife imagery due to its contrasting colors
3. An animal closely related to horses, notable for its striped appearance; commonly inhabiting African plains in social structures; frequently used to symbolize the diversity of wildlife

Etymology: The animal's name arrived in English through a chain of Iberian and Italian words that all trace back to a Latin phrase meaning "wild horse." Latin "equiferus" joined "equus" (horse) and "ferus" (wild), and by the early medieval period Portuguese speakers had shaped it into forms meaning "wild ass." Portuguese "zebra" and Italian "zebra" carried the word onward, and English first recorded it in 1600. The word is a plural, so "zebras" is simply the form used for more than one animal. Its singular, "zebra," is the word the paragraph above traces. Pronunciation has shifted too. The first vowel was traditionally long, as it still is in American and Canadian English, but in twentieth-century England it shortened, and that short form is now standard across the UK and most of the Commonwealth.