Editing Wildebeest (section)

== Etymology ==
{{lang|nl|Wildebeest}} is [[Dutch language|Dutch]] for 'wild beast', 'wild ox' or 'wild cattle' in [[Afrikaans]] (''[[:wikt:bees#Afrikaans|bees]]'' '[[cattle]]'),{{citation needed|date=April 2024}} The name was given by [[Dutch people|Dutch]] settlers who saw them on their way to the interior of [[South Africa]] in about 1700 because they resemble wild [[ox]]. The blue wildebeest was first known to westerners in the northern part of South Africa a century later, in the 1800s.<ref name=talbot>{{cite book|last1=Talbot |first1=L. M. |authorlink1=Lee M. Talbot |last2=Talbot |first2= M. H. |title=Wildlife Monographs:The Wildebeest in Western Masailand, East Africa|year=1963|publisher=National Academies |pages=20–31}}</ref>

Some sources claim the name ''gnu'' originates from the [[Khoekhoe language|Khoekhoe]] name for these animals, ''t'gnu''.<ref name=mw>{{cite dictionary |title=Gnu |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gnu|dictionary=[[Merriam-Webster]] |access-date=14 January 2014}}</ref> Others contend the name and its pronunciation in English go back to the word ''!nu:'' used for the [[black wildebeest]] by the [[San people]].<ref name=nu!>{{cite dictionary |last=Bleek |first=Dorothea F. |title=nu |date=1956 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l3UTAwAAQBAJ&dq=wildebeest+!nu&pg=PA483 |dictionary=Bushman dictionary |location=New Haven, Connecticut, USA |publisher=American Oriental Society |page=483 |isbn=978-5-88232-726-1}}</ref>{{additional citation needed|date=April 2024}}