“河马”探源

Traceability of “hema”

河马是非洲的大型食草动物。这种动物介绍到中国大约是在19世纪20—30年代。《东西洋考每月统记传》(1838)中的《河马像略说》是较早出现"河马"一词的汉语文献。"河马"其实不是汉语本族词,它来自日语。而日语的"河馬"(かば)译自荷兰语的nijlpaard。

The hippopotamus is a large,mostly herbivorous mammal in sub-Saharan Africa. As a Japanese loanword,hema( hippopotamus) has been used since the 1830s to describe these mammals. The term was first introduced in publications in 1838 when hema appeared in the text in Eastern Western Monthly Magazine( the inaugural modern-age Chinese language magazine). The Japanese word kaba( 河馬,かば) comes from the Dutch nijlpaard.