Cape lobster
- noun
- South African
:
langosta del Cabo
- Unlike its larger relatives, the Cape lobster is quite small and elusive.
Examples
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The waters around South Africa are home to the rare Cape lobster.
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Local fishermen occasionally catch a Cape lobster among the more common species.
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I caught a Cape lobster yesterday.
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Have you ever tried Cape lobsters?
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Local fishermen occasionally catch a Cape lobster among the more common species.
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The waters around South Africa are home to the rare Cape lobster.
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Unlike its larger relatives, the Cape lobster is quite small and elusive.
Synonyms
A small lobster from the southern African coast called the Cape lobster
How Big
157
1.0
- South African
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is transparently built from 'cape' (a coastal promontory/place name) + 'lobster' (a crustacean), so a learner who knows both words will infer it denotes a lobster associated with the Cape region. Although the fine-grained taxonomic detail (a small species native to southern Africa) is extra information, the basic meaning 'a lobster from the Cape' follows a common place-name + animal compounding pattern and is predictable for B1 learners.
Etymology
The noun Cape lobster comes from the Cape of Good Hope, the southern 'Cape' area where this small lobster is found, so the name links the animal to the place it lives. That's why Cape lobster means 'a small species of lobster native to southern Africa'.