zebra

Meaning

Noun

• Any of three species of genus Equus: E. grevyi, E. quagga, or E. zebra, all with black and white stripes and native to Africa.
• A referee.
• An unlikely diagnosis, especially for symptoms probably caused by a common ailment. (Originates in the advice often given to medical students: "when you hear hoofbeats, think of horses, not zebras".)
• A biracial person, specifically one born to a member of the Sub-Saharan African race and a Caucasian.
• A fish, the zebra cichlid.
• Any of various papilionid butterflies of the subgenus Paranticopsis (subgenus) of the genus Graphium, having black and white markings.

Related

Similar words

• fascinoma

Narrower meaning words

• Burchell's zebra, Grevy's zebra, quagga, plains zebra, mountain zebra

Origin

• 1600; borrowed from Italian zebra, from Portuguese zebra, zebro, from Old Portuguese enzebro, ezebra, azebra, from earlier cebrario (882), ezebrario (897), from Vulgar Latin *eciferus, from Latin equiferus (Pliny), from equus + ferus.
• The term zebra, as used in its pejorative sense, was popularized on the television situation comedy The Jeffersons. The term was used by the series protagonist, George Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley), to express disdain for his daughter-in-law, Jenny Willis Jefferson, whose father was white and mother was black.
• While the word was traditionally pronounced with a long initial vowel in standard English, during the twentieth century a vowel shift occurred in regions of England, with the adoption of an initial short vowel. This pronunciation is now used throughout the UK and most Commonwealth nations. The long vowel pronunciation remains standard in Canadian and American English.
• In reference to the black and white striped shirts they wear.