zebra
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: board-games
chess
games
hobbies
lifestyle
medicine
sciences
sports
Etymology: First attested in 1600. Borrowed from Italian zebra, from Portuguese zebra, zebro (“zebra”), from Old Galician-Portuguese enzebro, ezebra, azebra (“wild ass”), from earlier cebrario (882), ezebrario (897), from Vulgar Latin *eciferus, from Latin equiferus (“wild horse”) (Pliny), from equus (“horse”) + ferus (“wild”).
While the word was traditionally pronounced with a long vowel in the first syllable in standard English, during the twentieth century a vowel shift occurred in regions of England, with the shortening of the first vowel. This pronunciation is now used throughout the UK and most Commonwealth nations. The long-vowel pronunciation remains standard in Canadian and American English and is used in the UK only by some older, conservative RP speakers.
(unlikely diagnosis): Originates in the advice often given to medical students, "when you hear hoofbeats, think of horses, not zebras".
(referee): In reference to the black and white striped shirts they wear.
Inflected forms:
form: zebra
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: zebras
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: Any of three species of subgenus Hippotigris: Equus grevyi, Equus quagga, or Equus zebra, all with black and white stripes and native to Africa.
pos: noun
examples: A group of zebras can be called a dazzle.
gloss: A referee.
pos: noun
tags: slang
gloss: An unlikely diagnosis, especially for symptoms probably caused by a common ailment.
pos: noun
tags: slang
examples: "It's a zebra! George. OK, I should explain. A zebra is..."
"Medical slang for coming to an exotic diagnosis when a more simple explanation is more likely."
"That's right. I was convinced that George, given his age and symptoms, had some kind of cardiac issue. It fit, it made sense. Because I was looking for the obvious when I should have been looking for the zebra! George is just having an allergic reaction to a combination of chemicals from all the stains and paints he's been using in the garage."
gloss: Someone who has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome or hypermobility spectrum disorder
pos: noun
tags: broadly
examples: EDS charities around the world use a zebra logo to promote the idea that sometimes it really is that ‘rare’ condition.
“I was told in medical school, ‘when you hear hoofbeats think horses, not zebras,’” she says. Many trainee doctors receive the same advice – when a patient presents with symptoms, “look for the common thing.” That’s why EDS patients commonly refer to themselves as zebras – and also use the fabulous collective noun “dazzle.” The name represents rarity and evokes the stripy stretch marks that are a common feature on EDS skin.
gloss: A biracial person, specifically one born to a Sub-Saharan African person and a white person.
pos: noun
tags: derogatory
ethnic
slang
slur
examples: “People change countries for all kinds of reasons,” Ross tells me. “But at least one of them was that she had this light-skinned, mixed-race child who had already been called a zebra at school.”
gloss: A zebra cichlid (Amatitlania nigrofasciata).
pos: noun
tags: informal
gloss: Any of various papilionid butterflies of the subgenus Paranticopsis of the genus Graphium, having black and white markings.
pos: noun
gloss: A zebra crossing.
pos: noun
examples: On his way home he'd picked up two economy-sized bags of tortilla chips, and had dropped both when a twat in a Lexus honked him on a zebra . . .
gloss: A fairy chess piece that is moved three squares in one direction and two at right angles to that direction in a single move, leaping over any intervening pieces.
pos: noun
Related words: quagga
Equus burchelli
Equus grevyi
Equus quagga
Equus zebra
Derived words: Burchell's zebra
Cape mountain zebra
Chapman's zebra
common zebra
Crawshay's zebra
Damaraland zebra
Grant's zebra
Grevy's zebra
Grévy's zebra
Hartmann's mountain zebra
maneless zebra
mountain zebra
Persian zebra
plains zebra (Equus quagga
Selous's zebra
zebra acara
zebra antelope
zebra blue butterfly
zebra butterfly
zebra cake
zebra caterpillar
zebra chip
zebra cichlid
zebra crossing
zebra danio
zebra dove
zebra duiker
zebra finch
zebrafish
zebra fish
zebra giraffe
zebra haworthia
zebraic
zebralike
zebra lionfish
zebra mongoose
zebra mouse
zebra mule
zebra mussel
zebra opossum
zebra parakeet
zebra parrot
zebra plant
zebra poison
zebra seahorse
zebra shark
zebra spider
zebrass
zebra striping
zebra swallowtail
zebra-tailed lizard
Callisaurus draconoides
zebra turkeyfish
zebra wolf
zebrawood
zebrine
zebroid
zeedonk
zeehorse
zorse
Zululand zebra
Translations: