Etymograph

English

mastodon

Mastodon comes from mul Mastodon.

  1. mulmodernMastodon
  2. Englishearliest quotation 2014mastodon

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. mulmodernMastodon
  2. Englishearliest quotation 2014mastodon

Earliest quotation: 2014, Elizabeth Kolbert: “When, exactly, Europeans first stumbled upon the bones of…”

Formed from masto- ‘breast’ + -odon ‘tooth’

first attested First attested 1813, from translingual Mastodon (1806), coined by French naturalist Georges Cuvier, from masto- (“breast”) + -odon (“tooth”), due to the mammilloid (“nipple-shaped”) projections on the crowns of the extinct mammal's molars (as stated in the etymology)

The story

First attested 1813, from translingual Mastodon (1806), coined by French naturalist Georges Cuvier, from masto- (‘breast’) + -odon (‘tooth’), due to the mammilloid (‘nipple-shaped’) projections on the crowns of the extinct mammal's molars.

Every English word from mul Mastodon

Today it means

noun Extinct elephant-like mammal of the genus †Mammut that flourished worldwide from Miocene through Pleistocene times; differs from elephants and mammoths in the form of the molar teeth.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / mul Mastodon / mastodon

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