zebran.

Etymology: < (i) Italian zebra (1591 in the passage translated in quot. 1597), and its etymon (ii) Portuguese zebra, zevra (1578 in the work ultimately underlying quot. 1653), apparently a transferred use of zevra, zevro kind of feral horse of the Iberian peninsula (12th cent.; compare note) < an unattested post-classical Latin form *eciferus < classical Latin equiferus wild or feral horse (Pliny) < equus horse (see hippo- comb. form) + ferus wild (see feral adj.¹).Compare Spanish cebra , cebro feral Iberian horse (13th cent. as zebra , zebro , and ezebra ), cebra zebra (1611 or earlier; cognate with the Portuguese word), and the later borrowings French zèbre (1610; also 1628 as zeure in the passage translated in quot. 1653), Dutch zebra (1596), German Zebra (late 17th cent.), and also scientific Latin zebra , specific name (Linnaeus 1735). The feral horses of the Iberian peninsula appear to have become rare or extinct in the early modern period. They are reported to have been partially striped. Former suggestion. The word was formerly sometimes believed to be < an African language, probably based on early reports of the name being used by the inhabitants of the Kongo region (e.g. H. Ludolf 1681, in the passage paraphrased in quot. 1682); however, this is more likely to refer to the language of the Portuguese settlers in the region. Variant forms. In the isolated early plural form zebrae after the Latin plural of feminine nouns ending in -a ; the regular plurals in Spanish and Portuguese are formed with -s (as in English). Forms with final -e reflect partial transmission via French in the 17th cent. The form zembra is apparently originally based on a misreading; the Latin text paraphrased in quot. 1682 cites a local name in the form zebra (probably Portuguese: see above).