okapi

okapi

See also: Okapi

English

WOTD – 3 March 2022

Etymology

An okapi (Okapia johnstoni).

Borrowed from Mvuba okapi.[1]

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ə(ʊ)ˈkɑːpi/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /oʊˈkɑpi/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• (General South African) IPA^(key): /əʊˈkɑːpi/
• Hyphenation: oka‧pi

Noun

okapi (plural okapi or okapis)

1. A large ruminant mammal, Okapia johnstoni, found in the rainforests of the Congo, related to the giraffe but with a much shorter neck, a reddish-brown coat, and zebra-like stripes on its hindquarters. [from early 20th c.]

   Synonyms: Congolese giraffe, forest giraffe, zebra giraffe

   • 1901 September, Harry [i.e., Henry] H[amilton] Johnston, “The Okapi: The Newly-discovered Beast Living in Central Africa”, in McClure’s Magazine, volume XVII, number 5, New York, N.Y.; London: S[amuel] S[idney] McClure Co., OCLC 3636477, pages 498 and 499:

     [page 498, column 1] [I]n leading them [African Pygmies] back to the forests where they dwelt, I obtained much information from them on the subject of the horse-like animal which they called the "Okapi." […] [page 499, column 1] The coloration of the Okapi is quite extraordinary. […] The hind quarters, hind and fore legs are either snowy white or pale cream color, touched here and there with orange. They are boldly marked, however, with purple-black stripes and splodges, which give that zebra-like appearance to the limbs of the Okapi that caused the first imperfect account of it to indicate the discovery of a new striped horse.

   • 1902 November 18, C[harles] I[mmanuel] Forsyth Major, “On a Specimen of the Okapi Lately Received at Brussels”, in Proceedings of the Scientific Meetings of the Zoological Society of London, volume I, London: […] [Zoological] Society [of London]; Messrs. Longmans, Green, and Co., […], ISSN 0370-2774, OCLC 1131321218, page 344:

     Personally I esteem it a more fascinating and a more important task to investigate the relations of the Okapi with the Giraffe on the one hand, and its fossil relatives on the other.

   • 1904, Saki [pseudonym; Hector Hugh Munro], “Reginald’s Christmas Revel”, in Reginald, London: Methuen & Co. […], OCLC 503322785, page 98:

     [O]ne day I quite modestly gave the dimensions of an okapi I had shot in the Lincolnshire fens. The Major turned a beautiful Tyrian scarlet (I remember thinking at the time that I should like my bathroom hung in that colour), and I think that at that moment he almost found it in his heart to dislike me.

   • 1915 August 26, H[enry] H[amilton] Johnston, “Life Habits of the Okapi”, in Nature: A Weekly Illustrated Journal of Science, volume 95, number 2391, London: Macmillan and Co.; New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, OCLC 64051812, page 714, column 1:

     Dr. [Cuthbert] Christy adds his testimony to that of his predecessors in the same quest as to the "invisibility" of the okapi, whose markings and coloration—pace Colonel Theodore Roosevelt—so break up the surface of its large body and long legs as to cause it to fuse with the dark-brown, russet, while and yellow-white of the twigs and stems and leaf-stalks amongst which it moves. He also points out that the hoofs of the okapi are so closely pressed together that the footprint is almost like that of the single-toed donkey.

   • 1922 May, T[homas] Alexander Barns, “To the Game-haunted Solitudes of Ruchuru and Ruindi Plains”, in The Wonderland of the Eastern Congo: The Region of the Snow-crowned Volcanoes, the Pygmies, the Giant Gorilla and the Okapi, London; New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, OCLC 977951802, page 99:

     I also took out a licence to shoot small game, costing fifty francs, which can be obtained on the spot, and under which I was able to shoot all kinds of game, excepting elephants, chimpanzis, gorillas and okapis.

Hypernyms

• Giraffidae

Coordinate terms

• Giraffa
• giraffe

Translations

Okapia johnstoni

Afrikaans: okapi Armenian: օկապի (ōkapi) Assamese: অকাপী (okapi) Basque: okapi (eu) Bulgarian: окапи (bg) n (okapi) Catalan: okapi m, ocapi m Chinese: Cantonese: 㺢㹢狓 (fok³gaa¹pei⁴) Mandarin: 㺢㹢狓 (zh) (huōjiāpí, huòjiāpí) Czech: okapi (cs) f Danish: okapi Dutch: okapi (nl) m Esperanto: okapio Estonian: okaapi (et) Finnish: okapi (fi) French: okapi (fr) m Galician: ocapi m Georgian: ოკაპი (oḳaṗi) German: Okapi (de) n Greek: οκάπι (el) n (okápi), οκαπία (el) f (okapía) Hebrew: אוקאפי‎ (okapi), אוקפי‎ (okapi) Hindi: ओकापी (okāpī) Hungarian: okapi Icelandic: ókapi Ido: okapio (io) Indonesian: okapi Italian: okapi (it) m Japanese: オカピ (ja) (okapi) Korean: 오카피 (okapi) Latvian: okapi Lingala: mondonga Lithuanian: okapija (lt) Malagasy: ôkapy Malay: okapi Malayalam: ഓകാപി (ōkāpi) Norwegian: Bokmål: okapi Nynorsk: okapi Polish: okapi (pl) f Portuguese: ocapi (pt) m Romanian: okapi (ro) f Russian: ока́пи (ru) m (okápi) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: ока̀пи m Roman: okàpi (sh) m Slovak: okapia Slovene: okapi (sl) Spanish: okapi (es) m, ocapi m Swahili: okapi Swedish: okapi (sv) Sylheti: ꠅꠇꠣꠙꠤ (oxafi) Tagalog: okapi Tamil: ஓக்காப்பி (ōkkāppi) Thai: โอคาพี Turkish: okapi (tr) Ukrainian: ока́пі m (okápi) Vietnamese: hươu đùi vằn Welsh: ocapi

References

1. “okapi, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2021; “okapi, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

• okapi on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Okapia johnstoni on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• Okapia johnstoni on Wikispecies.Wikispecies

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Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈokapɪ]
• Rhymes: -apɪ

Noun

okapi f

1. okapi (large ruminant mammal)

Further reading

• okapi in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
• okapi in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

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Dutch

Etymology

From Mvuba okapi.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: oka‧pi

Noun

okapi m (plural okapi's, diminutive okapietje n)

1. okapi

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Finnish

Etymology

From English okapi, from Mvuba okapi.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈokɑpi/, [ˈo̞kɑpi]
• Rhymes: -okɑpi
• Syllabification^(key): o‧ka‧pi

Noun

okapi

1. okapi

Declension

Inflection of okapi (Kotus type 5/risti, no gradation)
nominative		okapi	okapit
genitive		okapin	okapien
partitive		okapia	okapeja
illative		okapiin	okapeihin
		singular	plural
nominative		okapi	okapit
accusative	nom.	okapi	okapit
	gen.	okapin
genitive		okapin	okapien
partitive		okapia	okapeja
inessive		okapissa	okapeissa
elative		okapista	okapeista
illative		okapiin	okapeihin
adessive		okapilla	okapeilla
ablative		okapilta	okapeilta
allative		okapille	okapeille
essive		okapina	okapeina
translative		okapiksi	okapeiksi
instructive		—	okapein
abessive		okapitta	okapeitta
comitative		—	okapeineen

Possessive forms of okapi (type risti)
possessor	singular	plural
1st person	okapini	okapimme
2nd person	okapisi	okapinne
3rd person	okapinsa

Anagrams

• poika, pokia

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɔ.ka.pi/

Noun

okapi m (plural okapis)

1. okapi

Further reading

• “okapi”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Japanese

Romanization

okapi

1. Rōmaji transcription of オカピ

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Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from Mvuba okapi.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɔˈka.pi/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -api
• Syllabification: o‧ka‧pi

Noun

okapi f (indeclinable) or okapi m anim (indeclinable)

1. okapi

Further reading

• okapi in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• okapi in Polish dictionaries at PWN

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Spanish

Alternative forms

• ocapi

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /oˈkapi/ [oˈka.pi]

• Audio (Spain)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -api
• Syllabification: o‧ka‧pi

Noun

okapi m (plural okapis)

1. okapi

Further reading

• “okapi”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014