giraffe

B1 Topic:Animals

Also spelled girafft

US /dʒɪˈɹaf/ UK /dʒɪˈɹɑːf/ See IPA manual

Freq #13280

Meanings

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

Simplified etymology

Giraffe entered English in the late 16th century from Arabic zarāfa.

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.

*ḱerh₂- Proto-Indo-European giraffa Italian

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Animals

External links

# giraffe

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B1
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /dʒɪˈɹaf/
**IPA (UK):** /dʒɪˈɹɑːf/
**Frequency rank:** 13280

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

## Examples
- The giraffe stretched its long neck to reach the leaves.

## Derived Forms
- giraffedom
- giraffelike
- giraffeling
- giraffess
- giraffish
- giraffiti
- giraffoid
- giraffy

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: *ḱerh₂-
- Root: giraffa

## 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.

## AI Etymology
Giraffe was borrowed from Middle French giraffe, from Italian giraffa. Displaced camelopard. In current use, the main sense is “A tall African animal with a very long neck and legs and spotted skin”.

## Topics
- Animals

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