mazame
(məˈzeɪm)
Also mazama.
[a. F. mazame (Buffon), a. Mexican ma{cced}ame (cited in the Sp. transl. of Hernandez, 1615), pl. of ma{cced}atl deer, mistaken for a sing.
The U.S. Dicts. give the above pronunciation; the original word is (maˈsame).]
1. Used as a name for various American species of deer; also applied to the Pronghorn.
By some recent zoologists the mod.L. mazama is used as the name of a genus including all the American Cervidæ.
| 1791 Smellie tr. Buffon (ed. 3) VII. 31 These roebucks, or mazames and temama{cced}ames of Mexico. 1890 Century Dict., Mazame. 1. The North American pronghorn. 2. The pampas-deer of South America. |
2. The antilopine Rocky Mountain goat, Oreamnus or Haplocerus montanus.
Hence the name of ‘The Mazamas’, given to a society of mountain-climbers organized on the summit of Mount Hood 19 July 1894 (Gd. Words Feb. 1901, p. 101).
| 1852 J. E. Gray Catal. Specim. Mammalia Brit. Mus. iii. 114 Mazama Americana, The Mazame or Spring-buck. 1871–82 Cassell's Nat. Hist. III. 27 The Mazama or Mountain Goat of California and the Rocky Mountains. |