camelopard

American  

[kuh-mel-uh-pahrd] / kəˈmɛl əˌpɑrd /

noun

Archaic.

1. a giraffe.

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camelopard British  

/ kəˈmɛl-, ˈkæmɪləˌpɑːd /

noun

1. an obsolete word for giraffe

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Etymology

Origin of camelopard

1350–1400; Middle English < Medieval Latin camēlopardus, for Latin camēlopardālis < Greek kamēlopárdalis giraffe, equivalent to kámēlo ( s ) camel + pardalis pard ¹

Example Sentences

Not until the seventeenth century did the English, who fixated on the giraffe’s camel-ish shape and leopard-ish coloring, stop calling it a camelopard.

From The New Yorker • May 17, 2016

At the zoological garden was found nearly every animal extant, from a mouse to a camelopard.

From Every-Day Errors of Speech by Meredith, L. P.

This skeleton shows the marvellous bird to have been, when standing upright, six feet taller than the average full-grown camelopard.

From Under the Southern Cross or Travels in Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, Samoa, and Other Pacific Islands by Ballou, Maturin Murray

What she intended doing next, was not long doubtful; for, taking a magical wand from her pocket, she bade the Giant, with a wave of her wand, turn into a camelopard.

From Ting-a-ling by Stockton, Frank Richard

At a meeting of the Academy of Sciences in Paris, on the 2nd of July last, M. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire observed that naturalists were wrong in supposing that there was only one species of the camelopard.

From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 10, No. 280, October 27, 1827 by Various