rhinoceros: [13] Rhinoceros means literally ‘nose-horn’. The term was coined in Greek from rhīno-, the stem form of rhīs ‘nose’, and kéras ‘horn’ (a distant relative of English horn). Greek rhīnókerōs reached English via Latin rhīnocerōs. The abbreviated form rhino is first recorded in the 1880s. => antirrhinum, horn, keratin
rhinoceros (n.)
c. 1300, from Latin rhinoceros, from Greek rhinokeros, literally "nose-horned," from rhinos "nose" (a word of unknown origin) + keras "horn" (see kerato-). Related: Rhinocerotic.
What is the plural of rhinoceros? ... Well, Liddell and Scott seem to authorize 'rhinocerotes,' which is pedantic, but 'rhinoceroses' is not euphonious. [Sir Charles Eliot, "The East Africa Protectorate," 1905]
