English edit

Noun edit

hippopotamoi

  1. plural of hippopotamos, an archaic form of hippopotamus
    • 1854, ed. W. Anderson, Treasury of the Animal World. For the Young., page 154:
      It sometimes happens, that when a herd of hippopotamoi are surprised in a pool which they do not consider sufficiently safe, owing to its want of depth or extent, after being fired at for a short time, they will make a determined rush for a safer position
    • 1850, Roualeyn Gordon-Cumming, Five Years of a Hunter’s Life in the Far Interior of South Africa. With Notices of the Native Tribes, and Anecdotes of the Chase of the Lion, Elephant, Hippopotamus, Giraffe, Rhinoceros, &c., volume I, page 43:
      I remember on one occasion, about three years later, when weary with warring against the mighty elephants and hippopotamoi which roam the vast forests and sport in the floods of the fair Limpopo, having mounted a pair of unwonted shot-barrels, I sought recreation in the humbler pursuit of quail-shooting.
    • 1926, Keble Howard, Paradise Island: a Tale of a Shipwrecked Tweeny, page 16:
      A most devout man, he devours fruit salad like a herd of hippopotamoi wallowing in the Wallawalla River.