sand badger
- noun
- Philippine
:
tejón de arena
- The sand badger is known for its distinctive snout and burrowing habits.
Examples
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Many sand badgers live in sandy areas of Southeast Asia.
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Unlike other species, the sand badger is adapted to sandy environments.
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Researchers observed a family of sand badgers digging for insects in the forest.
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The sand badger is known for its unique snout.
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The sand badger uses its pig-like snout to search for food in sandy soil.
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In Southeast Asia, the sand badger can be found primarily in dry, sandy habitats.
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The sand badger is a fascinating creature, distinguished by its burrowing lifestyle.
Synonyms
A badger from Southeast Asia with a pig-like snout
A small wild animal with a long pig-like nose found in Southeast Asia
A badger from Southeast Asia that uses a pig-like nose to dig
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is directly compositional: combining 'sand' (sandy habitat/material) with 'badger' signals a type or variety of badger associated with sand. Such noun-noun compounds to indicate a subtype are cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
The compound noun sand badger comes from what the animal does: it is a small badger with a pig-like snout that digs in sandy places for insects. So the name joins sand (where it lives) and badger (a digging mammal), which is why we use sand badger for that Southeast Asian burrowing animal.
