bison
(ˈbaɪsən, ˈbɪsən, ˈbɪzən)
Pl. 4–6 in Latin form, bisontes, bisountes; sing. 7– bison.
[Adopted, directly or through F. bison, (Cotgr. 1611) from L. bison (pl. bisontes), ad. OTeut. *wisand, wisund str. masc., the native name, in OHG. wisunt, -ant, -int, MHG. wisant, -ent, -en, MGer. wesant, OE. wesend, ON. visundr, pl. visundar (with i afterwards lengthened). The Old English wesend having been long obsolete, the word has come back to us through Latin, in which guise it can hardly be looked upon as Eng. before the 17th c., and has become familiar only in connexion with the American Bison. It is in Minsheu, Coles, Phillips 1678–1706, and Kersey; but not in Cockeram, Blount, Bailey 1721–90, Johnson, nor Richardson 1836–55: it was added by Todd to Johnson, 1818. Etymologically (ˈbɪsən) is the most correct, but (ˈbaɪsən) is the prevailing pronunciation.]
The name of two species of Wild Oxen, which some naturalists separate from the genus Bos, and make a distinct genus Bison or Bonasus.
1. orig. A species of Wild Ox (Bos Bison Gesn., B. bonasus Linn.), formerly prevalent in Europe, including Great Britain, and still existing in a protected state in forests of Lithuania. (This was the βίσων of Pausanias and Oppian, the βόνασος of Aristotle and ælian, the bĭson and bonāsus of Pliny and Solinus, the bison of Seneca and Martial; pl. bisontes, in later writers visontes, vesontes, bissontes. It is now sometimes called the Aurochs, a name belonging rightly to the extinct Bos Urus, the Urus of Cæsar. See the exhaustive article Wisunt, in Schade, Altdeutsches Wbch.)
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xv. xxx. (1495) 499 There ben many bestes of dyuers kynde in Beme [= Bohemia] as beeres, hartes..bubali and bisontes. Ibid. xv. lxxxiii. (1495) 521 In Karinthia ben many beers, bysountes and other wonderful beestis. 1601 Holland Pliny ii. 323 Those neat or buffles called uri or bisontes. 1611 Bible Deut. xiv. 5 The pygarg [marg. bison], and the wild ox, and the chamois. 1617 Minsheu s.v. B{iacu}son, a wilde oxe, great eied, broad⁓faced, that will neuer be tamed. 1661 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. 23 Hereto may be referred the Bison: and Ureoxe. 1860 Gosse Rom. Nat. Hist. 203 In the forests of Lithuania there yet linger a few herds of another enormous ox, which at one time roamed over the whole of Europe, including even the British Isles—the European bison. |
2. The North American species B. Americanus, popularly called ‘Buffalo,’ which formerly roamed in vast herds over the interior of the continent, chiefly in the neighbourhood of the Rocky Mountains.
| [1693 Ray Synops. Animal. 71 Bison..hujusmodi bovem aliquando vidimus in vivario regio Westmonasteriensi unde allatum nescio; ni forte ex Florida regione Americana.] 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. II. 12. 1777 Robertson Hist. Amer. (1783) II. 107 The bison of America. 1810 Campbell Poems II. 16 We launch'd our quivers for the bison chace. 1841 Catlin N. Amer. Ind. (1844) I. iv. 24 The buffalo (or more correctly speaking bison) is a noble animal, that roams over the prairies. 1877 J. Allen Amer. Bison 449 The height of the American bison..is found to be sixty-six inches. |