river horse

English

Etymology

Calque of Ancient Greek ἱπποπόταμος (hippopótamos).

Noun

river horse (plural river horses)

  1. (poetic) hippopotamus
    • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 1, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, OCLC 57395299:
      It is out of the idolatrous dotings of the old Egyptians upon broiled ibis and roasted river horse, that you see the mummies of those creatures in their huge bake-houses the pyramids.
    • 1849, Charlotte Brontë, Shirley
      Liverpool started and snorted like a river-horse roused among his reeds by thunder.

Synonyms

Translations
hippopotamus — see hippopotamus
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