incognitum
English edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from Latin incognitum (“unknown”). Coined by William Hunter.
Noun edit
incognitum (plural incognita)
- (archaic) An American mammoth or mastodon, especially when presumed extant.
- 2014, Elizabeth Kolbert, chapter 2, in The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Henry Holt and Company:
- When, as president, he dispatched Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to the Northwest, Jefferson hoped that they would come upon live incognita roaming its forests.
Latin edit
Adjective edit
incognitum
- inflection of incognitus: