hartebeest, noun
/ˈhɑːtəbiːst/, /ˈhɑːtəbɪəs/, /hartəbiːst/, /hartəbɪəs/
- Forms:
- Show more Also haartebeest, hartbees, hartbeest, hartebees, hartebeeste, hartibeest.
- Plurals:
- unchanged, hartebeests, or hartebeeste /ˈhɑːtəˌbɪəstə/.
- Origin:
- South African Dutch, DutchShow more South African Dutch, from Dutch hart (variant of hert) hart + linking phoneme -e- + beest beast, animal; see quotation 1786.
a. A name applied to any of several antelope of the genera Damaliscus, Sigmoceros, and Alcephalus of the Bovidae, especially the red hartebeest and the Lichtenstein’s hartebeest (see sense b below); hartebeast sense a. Also attributive. See also tsessebe.
[1786 G. Forster tr. of A. Sparrman’s Voy. to Cape of G.H. I. 129The two largest sorts of antilopa or gazels..are called by the Dutch, hartbeest and Bunteboks; the former name, which signifies hart-beast, was probably given to the former of these creatures on account of some resemblance they showed in colour to the harts of Europe.]
1991 Personality 5 Aug. 26I’ve..seen hartebeest lying dead in the pen while that lot was actually being auctioned.
b. With distinguishing epithet, designating a particular species of hartebeest:
bastard hartebeest obsolete except in historical contexts [translation of South African Dutch basterhartebeest, probably so called because the antelope was thought to be a hartebeest of impure stock; cf. Bastard adjective], the tsessebe, Damaliscus lunatus;
flat-horned hartebeest [so called because its horns are flattened at the base], Lichtenstein’s hartebeest /ˈlɪxtənˌstəɪnz -/ [named for the German naturalist M.H.K. Lichtenstein (1780–1857)], or moffhartebeest, mofhartebeest /ˈmɔf-/ [Afrikaans, mof of impure breeding, probably from Dutch mof, muf literally ‘musty’, an insult usually applied to foreigners; cf. mof adjective], the antelope Sigmoceros lichtensteinii (usually referred to as ‘Lichtenstein’s hartebeest’), yellow-tawny in colour, and now found only in Zimbabwe and Mozambique, in small numbers;
red hartebeest, any of several southern African subspecies of the antelope Alcelaphus buselaphus, especially A.b. caama, reddish-brown to yellowish-fawn in colour, with pale rump; kama.
A name applied to any of several antelope of the genera Damaliscus, Sigmoceros, and Alcephalus of the Bovidae, especially the red hartebeest and the Lichtenstein’s hartebeest (see sense b below); hartebeast sense a. Also attributive.
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