Re: Reindeer, etymology

From: Daniel J. Milton
Message: 35638
Date: 2004-12-25

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Joao" <josimo70@...> wrote:
> The scientific name of reindeer is Rangifer tarandus. Does anybody
know the meaning of "tarandus"? Is Latin or some neologism created
by Linnaeus?
>
> Joao SL
**********
From L&S:
tarandos [a^], ho, a horned beast, native of Scythia, reindeer, or
more prob. elk, Arist.Mir.832b8, Fr.371,
Thphr.Fr.172.1, Ael.NA 2.16; tarandros is better attested in
Ph.1.384, and is v.l. in Arist. Mir.l.c.; so tarandrus in
Plin.HN8.123,124 (parandrum in Solin. 25.30).