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English
Etymology
From the inflected stem of Latin rhinoceros. Compare Middle French rhinocerote, obsolete Italian rinocerote.
Pronunciation
Noun
rhinocerot (plural rhinocerots or (archaic) rhinocerotes)
- (now rare) The rhinoceros.
1551, Edward Topsell, The Historie of Foure-footed Beastes, translation of Historiae Animalium de Quadrupedibus viviparis by Conrad Gesner, published 1607:Antoninus Pius the Emperor, did give many gifts unto the people, amongst which were both Tigers and Rhinocerots, (saith Iulius Capitalinus in his life).
1625, Samuel Purchas, Hakluytus Posthumus, J MacLehose, published 1905, page 63:Beyond that Country of Birds, is another wilde and mountainous, where abide many creatures much worse than those Birds, Elephants, Rhinocerotes, Lions, Wild-swine, Buffals, and Wild-kine.
1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia, section XL:I lately observ'd, that all the teeth of a Rhinocerot, which grow on either side of its mouth, are join'd into one large bone, the weight of one of which I found to be neer eleven pound Haverdupois.
1896, HW Seager, editor, Natural History in Shakespeare’s Time, Kessinger, published 2004, page 76:The Indians have a kind of Crocodile in Ganges, which hath a horn growing out of his nose like a Rhinocerot
References
OED Third Edition, June 2010