Dall sheep
1
7.5
- noun
- /dæl ʃiːp/
- US
:
oveja Dall
- I froze as I realized I was looking at the first Dall sheep I'd ever seen in the wild.
- Dall sheep and moose
- Dall sheep and caribou
- Dall sheep and grizzlies
Examples
-
Across the highway, Dall sheep graze among the rocks on the slopes above.
-
On the river, one might see caribou, moose, Dall sheep, eagles, grizzlies, and even the occasional seagull far from the shores of the Pacific.
Academic text (2008) -
Dall sheep like tall, steep mountain peaks where they feel safe.
Synonyms
A large white wild sheep that lives in northwestern Canada and Alaska
A large white wild sheep that lives on mountains in Alaska and northwest Canada with curved horns
A large wild white sheep that lives in northwest Canada and Alaska
Surface Forms
Morphology
Dall + sheep
This is a straightforward proper-name + common-noun combination: knowing 'Dall' as a name and 'sheep' as the animal will allow a B1 learner to infer that it denotes a type of sheep. While the specific attributes (white, range, horn shape) are not derivable, the core meaning 'a kind of sheep' is directly compositional and follows common cross-linguistic naming patterns.
Etymology
Dall sheep may come from William Dall, an American scientist who studied animals in Alaska, so the sheep were named after him. He wrote about these white mountain sheep, and people started calling them 'Dall's sheep', which is why today Dall sheep means the large, white wild sheep with curved horns.