mammal: [19] Etymologically, mammal denotes an ‘animal that suckles its young’. The word is a derivative of mammalia [18], the term for that whole class of animals, coined by the Swedish naturalist Linnaeus from Latin mammālis ‘of the breast’. This in turn was based on mamma ‘mother, breast’, which has been traced back to a prehistoric Indo-European *mammā.
There are obvious links with ‘mother’-terms in other languages, such as Greek mámmē, French maman, Italian mamma, Russian mama, Welsh mam, and English mamma and mummy, but whether a sustained chain of descent and borrowing is involved, or simply parallel formation based on the syllable ma, imitative of the sound of a suckling baby, is not clear. Mammary [17] is an English derivative of Latin mamma, in the sense ‘breast’. => mamma, mammary, mummy
mammal (n.)
1826, anglicized form of Modern Latin Mammalia (1773), coined 1758 by Linnaeus for the class of mammals, from neuter plural of Late Latin mammalis "of the breast," from Latin mamma "breast," perhaps cognate with mamma.
双语例句
1. Its hairy body suggests a mammal.
它毛茸茸的身体表明它是哺乳动物。
来自柯林斯例句
2. The function of a mammal's fur is to insulate the body.
哺乳动物皮毛的功能在于使身体保温.
来自《简明英汉词典》
3. A whale is a kind of mammal.
鲸是一种哺乳动物.
来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
4. The whale is the largest mammal in creation.
鲸鱼是所有哺乳动物中最大的.
来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
5. There is a close analogy between the gills of a fish and the lungs of a mammal.
