bison
/ˈbʌɪs(ə)n
/noun (plural same)
A humpbacked shaggy-haired wild ox native to North America and Europe.
- Genus Bison, family Bovidae: B. bison of North American prairies (also called buffalo), and B. bonasus of European forests (also called wisent), now found only in Poland. These are sometimes regarded as a single species.
- From North America came squirrels and raccoons, bears and bison, eagles and an elk.
- Elks and bison, it seems, adapted better to the new landscape than mammoths and horses.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Latin, ultimately of Germanic origin and related to wisent.