Aye! Flodhäst in Swedish, and カバ (河馬, 河 river, 馬 horse) in Japanese.
Comment on It's amazing so many people are able to use English as a second language.
Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de 5 weeks ago“Hippopotamus” is another one. It derives from the Greek words hippos (horse) and potamos (river) and this concept of river horse is present in many different languages:
- German: Flusspferd (lit. river horse)
- Dutch: Rivierpaard (lit. river horse)
- Finnish: Virtahepo (lit. stream horse)
- Danish: Flodhest (lit. flood horse)
- Chinese: 河马 (lit. river horse)
- Arabic: فرس النهر (lit. river horse)
- French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese use variations of hippopotamus.
Tiny variations exist as well:
- Hungarian: Víziló (lit. water horse)
- Afrikaans: Seekoei (lit. sea cow)
dojan@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Smallwater@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Actually, the Dutch translation is “Nijlpaard”, not “rivierpaard”.
But, it uses the Dutch name for the Nile river, “Nijl”. So it’s lit. “Nilehorse” - which is technically the same as “river horse”, just more geographically specific.