Editing Zebra (section)

==Etymology==
The English name "zebra" derives from [[Italian language|Italian]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]] or [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]].<ref name="etymology">{{cite web |title=Zebra |website=[[Online Etymology Dictionary]] |access-date=22 June 2020 |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/zebra}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Zebra |website=[[Lexico]] |access-date=25 June 2020 |url=https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/zebra|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200627194124/https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/zebra|url-status=dead|archive-date=27 June 2020}}</ref> Its origins may lie in the [[Latin]] ''equiferus'', meaning "wild horse". ''Equiferus'' appears to have entered into Portuguese as ''ezebro'' or ''zebro'', which was originally used for a legendary equine in the wilds of the [[Iberian Peninsula]] during the Middle Ages. In 1591, Italian explorer [[Filippo Pigafetta]] recorded "zebra" being used to refer to the African animals by Portuguese visitors to the continent.<ref name="zebro">{{Cite journal |doi=10.5252/az2015n1a2 |title=The Iberian Zebro: what kind of a beast was it? |journal=Anthropozoologica |volume=50 |year=2015 |last1=Nores |first1=Carlos |last2=Muñiz |first2=Arturo Morales |last3=Rodríguez |first3=Laura Llorente |last4=Bennett |first4=E. Andrew |last5=Geigl |first5=Eva-María|pages=21–32 |s2cid=55004515 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/4313384 }}</ref> In ancient times, the zebra was called ''hippotigris'' ("horse tiger") by the [[Ancient Greece|Greeks]] and [[Ancient Rome|Romans]].<ref name="zebro" />{{sfn|Plumb|Shaw|2018|p=54}}

The word ''zebra'' was traditionally pronounced with a long initial vowel, but over the course of the 20th century the pronunciation with the short initial vowel became the norm in [[British English]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Wells |first=John |title=Our Changing Pronunciation |journal=Transactions of the Yorkshire Dialect Society |year=1997 |volume=XIX|pages=42–48 |url=http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/yorksdial-uni.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141007035500/http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/yorksdial-uni.htm |archive-date=2014-10-07 |url-status=live |access-date=2014-02-06}}</ref> The pronunciation with a long initial vowel remains standard in [[American English]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Zebra |url=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/english/zebra |website=[[Cambridge Dictionary]] |access-date=26 May 2020}}</ref>