tapir
(ˈteɪpə(r), -ɪə(r))
Also 8 tapyr.
[ad. Tupi tapira or tapyra, now usually called tapyra-ete ‘true’ or ‘real tapir’, and tapir-ussu ‘great tapir’, to distinguish it from European cattle, to which the name tapira was also given by the aborigines.]
An ungulate mammal of tropical America of the genus Tapirus or family Tapiridæ, somewhat resembling the swine (but more nearly related to the rhinoceros), having a short flexible proboscis.
Originally applied to the species Tapirus americanus of Brazil; thence extended to the two Central American species, T. Dowii and T. Bairdi (also Elasmognathus), and the Malay Tapir, T. (or Rhinochœrus) indicus.
| [1568 tr. Thevet's New Found Worlde 78 (heading) Tapihire, a beaste. 1580 De Lery Voyage au Brésil 312 Tapiroussou, une beste qu'ils nomment ainsi. 1648 Marcgrave Hist. Nat. Brasiliae vi. vi. 229 Tapiierete Brasiliensibus, Lusitanis Anta. 1693 Ray Syn. Quad. 126 Tapiierete. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., Tapijerete..the name of an animal found in some parts of America, and called by the Portuguese anta.] 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) IV. 331 The tapir may be considered as the hippopotamos of the New Continent. 1796 Stedman Surinam II. xxiii. 176 The flesh of the tapira is delicate, being accounted superior to the best ox-beef. Ibid. (Plate), Tapir. 1834 Nat. Philos. III. Phys. Geog. 55/2 (Usef. Knowl. Soc.) In America, the only representative of these large pachydermatous animals is the tapir. 1865 Tylor Early Hist. Man. xi. 305 The snout of the tapir..protrudes a little more than that of our pigs. |
b. attrib. and
Comb. tapir mouth: see
quot.| 1891 Syd. Soc. Lex. s.v. Mouth, Tapir mouth, Landouzy's term for the peculiar tapir-like expression of mouth produced by wasting of the muscles of the face in myopathic atrophy. 1902 P. Fountain Mts. S. America iii. 87 Tapir-beef is the best meat to be obtained in South America. |
So
tapiˈridian,
a. belonging to the family
Tapiridæ;
n. an animal of this family;
ˈtapirine a., of or pertaining to the tapirs;
taˈpirodont a. [
Gr. ὀδούς, ὀδοντ- tooth], marking a dentition similar to that of the tapirs (
Cent. Dict. 1891);
ˈtapiroid a., allied to or resembling the tapirs.
| 1880 Libr. Univ. Knowl. (N.Y.) VII. 474 The herbivora will contain the suborders proboscidians,..*tapiridians, having long noses but not prehensile or only very slightly so, as the rhinoceros and tapir. |
| 1891 C. F. Holder Darwin 206 Animals without the peculiar *tapirine teeth. |
| 1849–52 Todd's Cycl. Anat. IV. 926/1 In the transverse divisions of the crown we perceive the affinity to the *Tapiroid type. 1880 Dawkins Early Man ii. 30 In France [the tapir] is associated with two tapiroid genera. |