Also spelled girafft

US /dʒɪˈɹaf/ UK /dʒɪˈɹɑːf/
noun Freq #13280

Meanings

  1. 1
    noun

    A tall African animal with a very long neck and legs and spotted skin.

    The giraffe stretched its long neck to reach the leaves.

Thesaurus

Synonyms
1 noun · a tall african animal with... camelopard
Word family
Forms giraffes
Derived forms giraffedomgiraffelikegiraffelinggiraffessgiraffishgiraffitigiraffoidgiraffy

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱer-der.? Proto-Indo-European *-h₂der.? Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂-der.? Classical Persian زُرْنَا (zurnā) Proto-Indo-European *ped- Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *pṓds Proto-Indo-Iranian *pā́ts Proto-Iranian *pā́dah Old Persian 𐎱𐎠𐎭 (p-a-d) Classical Persian پَا (pā) Classical Persian زُرْنَاپَا (zurnāpā)bor. Classical Syriac ܙܪܝܦܐ (zārīp̄ā)bor. Arabic زُرَافَة (zurāfa)bor. Italian giraffabor. Middle French giraffebor. English giraffe Borrowed from Middle French giraffe, from Italian giraffa. Displaced camelopard.

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