water buffalo
3
2.8
- noun
- /ˈwɔːtər ˈbʌfələʊ/
:
búfalo de agua
- The rice-giver is also the feast-giver, but now he will receive a water buffalo in return for his rice.
- water buffalo feast
- bridewealth, a water buffalo
- rice and water buffalo
And so we raise water Buffalo, yaks, zebu, you know, different types of cattle, sheep, goats.
- And so we raise water Buffalo, yaks, zebu, you know, different types of cattle, sheep, goats.
Examples
-
Zhu Li lives on a farm in China and takes care of her family's water buffalo.
Fiction book (2002) -
The work is hard, but it is made easier with the help of a water buffalo.
Fiction book (2002) -
You fly in low over a herd of water buffalo.
-
I sponsor a water buffalo in the Philippines.
-
Earlier in the century, the region supported as many as 130,000 water buffalo.
Academic text (2005) -
Farmers in China use water buffaloes to plow their rice paddies.
Fiction book (2002) -
Farmers often use a water buffalo to plow their muddy fields during the rainy season.
-
In rural areas of Asia, a water buffalo is an essential animal for agricultural work.
-
Many households rely on a water buffalo for both farming tasks and as a source of milk.
Synonyms
16
1.3
A large wild animal like a cow with horns that lives in Africa and Asia
A large Asian water buffalo that people use for plowing fields and for milk and meat
A large Asian animal like a buffalo used for pulling heavy loads
A large Asian farm animal like a cow that people use to pull plows
Large wild animals like the water buffalo or Cape buffalo that live in Africa and Asia
Surface Forms
Morphology
water + buffalo
The compound is directly compositional: 'water' modifies 'buffalo' to indicate a buffalo associated with water or wet fields, so a learner who knows both words can infer a large domesticated buffalo used in watery/muddy agriculture. This modifier-noun pattern is common cross-linguistically (e.g. Spanish 'búfalo de agua'), supporting immediate understandability at B1.
Etymology
Water buffalo gets its name from the animal's habit of living and working in wet places: these buffalo often cool off in rivers and pull plows in muddy fields. So, 'water buffalo' means a large farm animal kept by people to work on wet or muddy land.