| 释义 |
‖ platypus Zool.|ˈplætɪpəs|
[mod.L. (Shaw 1799), a. Gr. πλατύπους flat-footed, f. πλατύς flat + πούς foot. Orig. the generic name, but, having already been given to a genus of beetles, it was in 1800 changed for Ornithorhynchus.]
A name of the ornithorhynchus or duck-mole of Australia.
1799Shaw Naturalist's Misc. X. Pl. 385 Explan., The Duckbilled Platypus. 1832J. Bischoff Van Diemen's Land iii. 52 The skins of the..oppossum, tiger-cat, and platthypus, or ornythorhyncus paradoxus, are exported. 1878R. B. Smyth Aborigines of Victoria I. 251 The duck-billed platypus makes no nests, but lives in holes on the banks of rivers.
attrib.1893Scribner's Mag. June 792/2 Platypus hunting requires as quick an eye and hand as shooting woodcock in close cover. Ibid. 794/1 Platypus shopping-bags and purses are not disdained by the fair who crowd the marts..in Melbourne, or..in Sydney. |