zebra

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian zebra,^[2][3][4][5] partly borrowed from Portuguese zebra, also zevra,^[2][3][5] the Italian being recorded from 1591, in the passage that the first English record translates, and the Portuguese from 1578.^[2] Barnhart dates the Italian to 1554 and thinks Spanish zebra or zebro, now cebra, may have reinforced it.^[6] The Iberian word first named a wild ass or feral horse of the peninsula, recorded in the 12th century as Old Galician-Portuguese zevra and zevro;^[2][6][4] the Portuguese applied it to the African animal in the early 1500s.^[6] The Iberian animals, reported to have been partly striped, became rare or extinct in the early modern period.^[2] The OED and the American Heritage Dictionary derive the word from Vulgar Latin *eciferus, an alteration of Latin equiferus (“wild horse”), a word used by Pliny, formed from equus (“horse”) and ferus (“wild”);^[2][4][7][3] Barnhart, reporting this proposal of Corominas, finds the sound changes hard to account for and the Romance evidence lacking.^[6] The word was long thought to be African: Congolese in the OED of 1989 and in Hoad,^[3][8] Amharic in Klein;^[9][3] Skeat and Weekley gave it a native origin in Congo.^[10][11] The OED now thinks the early reports of a local name in the Kongo region more likely refer to the language of the Portuguese settlers there,^[2] and Word Origins says plainly that the word is not African.^[12] Partridge reports an older derivation from the name of the wind god Zephyrus, for the animal's speed.^[13] The European languages took the word later: Dutch zebra (1596), French zèbre (1610) and German Zebra (late 17th century).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The striped African animal: 1597, in Abraham Hartwell's translation of Duarte Lopes's report on the Kingdom of Congo.^[2] Barnhart dates it to 1600, in a translation from Italian of Leo Africanus' Geographical History of Africa.^[6]

Semantic evolution

From the 18th century the name was given to other things with dark stripes: various animals and timbers (1778), a striped shawl (1819), the zebra finch (1879) and a black-and-yellow striped butterfly of the Americas (1898).^[2] In the United States a zebra was a convict in a striped prison uniform, or the uniform itself, from 1882;^[2][14] Green's Dictionary of Slang notes that the image in all the slang senses is the mixture of black and white.^[14] The North American sporting sense, a referee in a striped shirt, dates from 1972.^[2][4] The British zebra crossing, marked with black and white stripes, was introduced in 1949,^[12] and zebra alone is recorded for it from 1951.^[2] Zebra is also the communications code word for the letter z.^[7]

Timeline

• 1597 – the African animal.^[2]
• 1600 – in a translation of Leo Africanus.^[6]
• 1778 – various animals, timbers and objects with dark stripes.^[2]
• 1819 – a striped shawl.^[2]
• 1879 – the zebra finch.^[2]
• 1882 – US, a convict in a striped uniform.^[2]
• 1898 – the zebra butterfly.^[2]
• 1949 – zebra crossings introduced in Britain.^[12]
• 1951 – short for zebra crossing.^[2]
• 1972 – a sports referee in a striped shirt.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of several wild African animals of the horse family, genus Equus, with a coat of black or brown and white stripes and an erect mane.^{[15][16][7][2]}
2. The zebra butterfly, a black-winged butterfly with yellow stripes, of the southern United States and Central and South America.^[15][2]
3. (North American, informal) A sports referee or official, from the black-and-white striped shirt.^[2][4]
4. (chiefly British) A zebra crossing.^[2]
5. A code word for the letter z in radio communication.^[7]
6. (US slang) A convict in a striped prison uniform, or the uniform itself.^[2][14]

Word family

• zebrine
• zebralike
• zebrass
• zebroid
• zebra crossing
• zebra plant

Related words

• equine
• equestrian
• feral
• fierce

Usage notes

In British English both /ˈzɛbrə/ and /ˈziːbrə/ are heard.^[2][16][7] Collins also lists Zebra in finance, a bond that pays no interest and whose accrued income is taxed each year; it is a 20th-century formation from zero-coupon bond.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
14. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
16. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins