Editing European bison (section)

==Etymology==
The [[ancient Greeks]] and ancient [[Roman people|Roman]]s were the first to name bison as such; the 2nd-century AD authors [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] and [[Oppian]] referred to them as {{Langx|grc-x-hellen|βίσων|translit=bisōn|label=none}}.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/19486 |title=bison, ''n''. |work= |publisher= |year=2011 |isbn= |edition=online 2nd |location= |pages= |access-date=11 January 2021 |via=[[Oxford English Dictionary]] |orig-year=1989}}</ref> Earlier, in the 4th century BC, during the [[Hellenistic period]], [[Aristotle]] referred to bison as {{Langx|grc-x-hellen|βόνασος|translit=bónasos|label=none}}.<ref name=":3" /> He also noted that the [[Paeonians]] called it μόναπος (''monapos'').<ref name="Arist4th">Αριστοτέλης 4th century BC: Των περί τα ζώα ιστοριών.</ref> [[Claudius Aelianus]], writing in the late 2nd or early 3rd centuries AD, also referred to the species as {{Langx|grc-x-hellen|βόνασος|label=none}}, and both [[Pliny the Elder]]'s [[Natural History (Pliny)|''Natural History'']] and [[Gaius Julius Solinus]] used {{Langx|la|bĭson}} and {{Langx|la|bonāsus|label=none}}.<ref name=":3" /> Both [[Martial]] and [[Seneca the Younger]] mention {{Langx|la|bison|label=none}} ({{Abbr|pl|plural}}. {{Langx|la|bisontes|label=none}}).<ref name=":3" /> Later Latin spellings of the term included {{Langx|la|visontes|label=none}}, {{Langx|la|vesontes|label=none}}, and {{Langx|la|bissontes|label=none}}.<ref name=":3" />

[[John Trevisa]] is the earliest author cited by the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' as using, in his 1398 translation of [[Bartholomeus Anglicus]]'s ''De proprietatibus rerum'', the Latin plural {{Langx|la|bisontes|label=none}} in English, as "bysontes" ({{Langx|enm|byſontes}} and {{Langx|enm|bysountes|label=none}}).<ref name=":3" /> [[Philemon Holland]]'s 1601 translation of Pliny's ''Natural History'', referred to "bisontes". The [[marginalia]] of the [[King James Version]] gives "bison" as a [[Gloss (annotation)|gloss]] for the Biblical animal called the "[[pygarg]]" mentioned in the ''[[Book of Deuteronomy]]''.<ref name=":3" /> [[Randle Cotgrave]]'s 1611 French–English dictionary notes that {{Langx|fr|bison|label=none}} was already in use in French, and it may have influenced the adoption of the word into English; alternatively, it may have been borrowed directly from Latin.<ref name=":3" /> [[John Minsheu]]'s 1617 lexicon, ''Ductor in linguas'', gives a definition for ''Bíson'' in {{Langx|en-emodeng|"a wilde oxe, great eied, broad-faced, that will neuer be tamed"}}.<ref name=":3" />

In the 18th century the name of the European animal was applied to the closely related American bison (initially in Latin in 1693, by [[John Ray]]) and the [[Indian bison]] (the gaur, ''Bos gaurus'').<ref name=":3" /> Historically, the word was also applied to Indian domestic cattle, the [[zebu]] (''B. indicus'' or ''B. primigenius indicus'').<ref name=":3" /> Because of the scarcity of the European bison, the word 'bison' was most familiar in relation to the American species.<ref name=":3" />

By the time of the adoption of 'bison' into Early Modern English, the early medieval English name for the species had long been obsolete: the {{Langx|ang|wesend}} had descended from {{langx|gem-x-proto|*wisand}}, {{langx|gem-x-proto|wisund|label=none}} and was related to {{langx|non|vísundr}}.<ref name=":3" /> The word 'wisent' was then borrowed in the 19th century from modern {{langx|de|Wisent}} [{{IPA|ˈviːzɛnt}}], itself related to {{langx|goh|wisunt}}, {{langx|goh|wisent|label=none}}, {{langx|goh|wisint|label=none}}, and to {{Langx|gmh|wisant}}, {{Langx|gmh|wisent|label=none}}, {{Langx|gmh|wisen|label=none}}, and ultimately, like the Old English name, from Proto-Germanic.<ref>{{Cite book|last=|first=|chapter-url=https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/229509|chapter=wisent, ''n''.|title=Oxford English Dictionary|publisher=|year=1989|isbn=|edition=online 2nd|location=|pages=|access-date=11 January 2021|orig-year=1928|archive-date=28 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211228030210/https://www.oed.com/start;jsessionid=564822A79DF48AD419DE5B2E2B82A0F2?authRejection=true&url=%2Fview%2FEntry%2F229509|url-status=live}}</ref> 

The word 'zubr' in English is a borrowing from {{langx|pl|żubr}} {{IPAc-pl|ʐ|u|b|r}}, previously also used to denote one race of the European bison.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Weissenborn|first1=W.|date=1838|title=On the Influence of Man in modifying the Zoological features of the Globe; with Statistical Accounts respecting a few of the more important species of Animals|journal=The Magazine of Natural History|volume=2}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Wilson|first1=James|date=1831|title=Essay III: On the origin and natural history of the domestic ox, and its allied species|journal=Journal of Agriculture|volume=2}}</ref> The Polish ''żubr'' is similar to the word for the European bison in other modern [[Slavic languages]], such as {{langx|hsb|žubr|label=none}} in [[Upper Sorbian]]; {{langx|uk|зубр|translit=zubr|label=none}} or {{langx|uk|бізон|translit=bizon|label=none}} in [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]]; {{langx|be|зубр|translit=zubr|label=none}} (or {{langx|be|зубар|translit=zubar|label=none}}) or {{langx|be|бізон|translit=bizon|label=none}} in [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]]; and {{langx|ru|зубр|translit=zubr|label=none}} in [[Russian language|Russian]]. The noun for the European bison in all living Slavonic tongues is thought to be derived from [[Proto-Slavic]]: ''*zǫbrъ'' ~ ''*izǫbrъ'', which itself possibly comes from [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]]: ''*ǵómbʰ-'' for tooth, horn or peg.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jagodziński |first1=Grzegorz |date=2008 |title=Nieindoeuropejskie słownictwo w germańskim |url=http://www.eioba.pl/a/1vmf/nieindoeuropejskie-slownictwo-w-germanskim |url-status=live |journal=Nieindoeuropejskie słownictwo w germańskim |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191210103705/http://www.eioba.pl/a/1vmf/nieindoeuropejskie-slownictwo-w-germanskim |archive-date=10 December 2019 |access-date=30 November 2019}}</ref> In the Baltic countries of [[Lithuania]] and [[Latvia]], where some bison populations persist as well, the animal is known as {{langx|lv|stumbras|label=none}} (plural: ''strumbrai'') in [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]] and {{langx|lt|sumbrs|label=none}} (plural: ''sumbri'') in [[Latvian language|Latvian]], respectively.