black buck
- noun
- Indian
:
antílope negro
- The male black buck boasts a dark coat and impressive horns, making it a distinctive sight in its natural habitat.
Examples
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The black buck, known for its striking spiral horns, is a graceful antelope found in India.
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They also migrated south into Africa, together with Asian forms like the Indian black buck, Antilope cervicapra, but while the horses evolved into several varieties of zebras, the Asian antelopes did not last long in Africa.
Academic text (1994) -
During our safari, we spotted a black buck grazing peacefully in the grasslands.
Synonyms
A medium-sized Indian antelope with a dark back, white belly and long spiral horns
A kind of antelope from India whose males have dark backs and long spiral horns
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound meaning is directly built from 'black' (color) + 'buck' (male deer/antelope), so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it denotes a black male deer/antelope. This color+animal composition is transparent and cross-linguistically common, even if the learner may not know the exact species name.
Etymology
Black buck gets its name from the animal's look: the male buck has a dark, almost black back and long curved horns, so people used that clear picture to name the animal. Today black buck is the common name for this antelope.
