walrus
海象,海马,鲸鱼,华勒斯
Definitions
- 1
plural wal·rus·es, wal·rus.
- : a large marine mammal, Odobenus nosmarus, of Arctic seas, related to the seals, and having flippers, a pair of large tusks, and a tough, wrinkled skin.
Where does the word walrus come from?
The walrus is, no doubt, a funny-looking animal. It’s got a droopy, hangdog kind of face, grumpy-old-man whiskers, and two ludicrous-looking tusks.So, it seems fitting that walrus also has a funny origin story: it may literally mean “whale-horse.” Well, that’s a theory.The origins of the word walrus are disputed. In fact, the writer of the famous Lord of the Rings books, J. R. R. Tolkien, came up with no fewer than six different possible origins of the word.Anyway, even if it’s not entirely true, the story goes that walrus comes from Dutch. Walvis means “whale” and ros means “horse.” Combine it all together and a walrus is a “whale-horse.” Which, if you look at this wonderful animal, seems like a fitting name for it.The roots of these other words may get a rise—of laughter or surprise—out of you too. Run on over to our roundup of them at “Weird Word Origins That Will Make Your Family Laugh.”
Examples
Human disturbances can trigger deadly stampedes and lead to high walrus mortality.
Desperate polar bears may increasingly attack walruses, but “there are limitations to how many walruses an adult bear can take down,” says coauthor Kristin Laidre, an Arctic ecologist at the University of Washington in Seattle.
This review suggests that tool use in wild polar bears, though infrequent, does occur in the case of hunting walruses because of their large size, the researchers report in the June Arctic.
The region was once known to scientists as the “last ice area” for its thick, year-round plates of ice critical for the survival of polar bears, seals and walruses.
Her work has appeared in The Walrus, Toronto Life, Hazlitt, This, and The Guardian.
The skin of the walrus is an inch thick, wrinkled, and covered with very short hair of different colours.
The walrus is easily distinguished by its long tusks, a character which we find peculiar to that and the elephant.
We have only seen two heads on this subject, which resembled that of the walrus more than any other animal.
Like the kayaks, it was covered with seal-skin; or perhaps it might have been the hide of the walrus.
We then took the captain with us to see their huts and our walrus-skin tent.