African wild ass
- noun
- /ˈæfrɪkən waɪld æs/
- South African
:
asno salvaje africano
- The African wild ass is critically endangered due to habitat loss and hunting.
Examples
-
Unlike domestic donkeys, the African wild ass has distinctive leg striping.
-
Researchers observed a small herd of African wild asses near the Ethiopian border.
-
The African wild ass is critically endangered.
-
Many African wild asses roam the deserts.
-
The African wild ass is critically endangered due to habitat loss and hunting.
-
Researchers observed a small herd of African wild asses near the Ethiopian border.
-
Unlike domestic donkeys, the African wild ass has distinctive leg striping.
Synonyms
A wild African animal like a donkey that is the ancestor of domestic donkeys
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a wild ass native to Africa' is directly and transparently derived from the adjectives 'African' and 'wild' modifying the noun 'ass' — the constituents combine in a standard compositional noun-phrase pattern. This straightforward modification is cross-linguistically common and follows basic vocabulary and grammar B1 learners already know, so the overall meaning is predictable from the parts.
Etymology
African wild ass is a simple picture: African shows where it lives, wild means living in nature, and ass is the old word for a 'donkey'. Imagine a small, hardy donkey roaming the dry hills of northeastern Africa, and that image explains why the name means a wild donkey species and why it is the ancestor of the domestic donkey.
