zebra
/ˈzɛbrə
/ /ˈziːbrə /noun
1An African wild horse with black-and-white stripes and an erect mane.
- Genus Equus, family Equidae: three species, in particular the common zebra (E. burchellii).
- This family, made up of the horses, asses and zebras, contains one genus with nine species.
- The route of the safari will allow visitors to see for themselves a wide variety of African wildlife including lions, rhinos, giraffes, zebras, chimpanzees and many other species.
2A large butterfly with pale stripes on a dark background, in particular:
- A yellow and black American butterfly (Heliconius charitonius, subfamily Heliconiinae, family Nymphalidae). (also Malayan zebra) A black and white Asian butterfly(Graphium delesserti, family Papilionidae)..
- The zebra longwing butterflies entertained me and a lot of other folks that summer and fall.
3 (also zebra fish) South African A silvery-gold sea bream with vertical black stripes.
- Diplodus cervinus, family Sparidae.
- It is a blending of DNA from a zebra fish and either a jellyfish or sea anemone.
- The company screens compounds for medical uses using zebra fish embryonic cells and fruitflies.
Origin
Early 17th century: from Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese, originally in the sense 'wild ass', perhaps ultimately from Latin equiferus, from equus 'horse' + ferus 'wild'.
Zebra is not from an African language, as was once thought, but via Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese from Latin equiferus ‘wild horse’—the root is equus, as in equestrian. The zebra crossing, named because it is marked with black and white stripes, was introduced in Britain in 1949.