Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A large extinct stocky quadrupedal marsupial of the genus Diprotodon that inhabited Australia during the Pleistocene Epoch.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A genus of extinct marsupial quadrupeds, surpassing the rhinoceros in size.
- noun [lowercase] An animal of this genus.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Paleon.) An extinct Quaternary marsupial from Australia, about as large as the hippopotamus; -- so named because of its two large front teeth. See
Illustration in Appendix.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Any individual of the
extinct marsupial genus Diprotodon , similar to awombat in appearance but the size of a small elephant.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[New Latin Diprōtodōn : Greek di-, two; see di– + prōto-, foremost, first, at the front; see proto– + odōn, odont-, tooth (from its two large tusklike lower incisors); see dent- in Indo-European roots.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Ancient Greek δίς (dis, "twice, doubly") + πρωτο- (proto-) (combination form of πρῶτος (protos, "first"), superlative of πρό (pro, "before")) + ὀδούς ("tooth") or ὀδών (Ionic) — hence “two front teeth.”
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Examples
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When he came to Australia in 2005 to be director of the University of Adelaide's Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, he was keen to find and analyse the droppings of the country's megafauna, creatures such as giant marsupial diprotodon and the giant short-faced kangaroo, which became extinct more than 45,000 years ago.
"Hooroo, where's the poo?" Ann Althouse 2009
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