It can’t be a coincidence that hippopotamus means “river horse” in both Greek and Chinese (hema) Did the word come from contact with the west in modern times? Is there an older Chinese word for Hippo? Did Admiral Zhenghe have any contact with hippos when he went to Africa?
If hippos were native to China, the question would become quite interesting indeed!
But they’re not, are they? – AFAIK it’s a tropical African beastie, so it’s only logical that the name would also be a fairly recent import. Thus, it’s reasonable to assume that the name is translated based on the roots of “hippopotamus”.
Correct me if I’m wrong, of course. 
I always assumed so.
Reference: How to say “hippopotamus” in various languages
…so “behemoth” is Hebrew for “hippopotamus”…You really do learn something new every day.
Wikipedia knows all (except it does spell hippopotamus wrong): 中文 Wikipedia: 河馬
[quote=“sjcma”]Wikipedia knows all (except it does spell hippopotamus wrong): 中文 Wikipedia: 河馬
[quote=“維基百科”]
河馬 這個詞來源於 希臘語’ιπποπ ?ταμο ?(英文名即 hippopotamos [sic] 、 hippo即"馬"， potamos即" 河 "，就是河馬的意思)，是非洲大型食草動物之一。
[/quote][/quote]
The power of Wiki: it’s been corrected! (by me)
wierd indeed. and what bout LAKE TAHOE here in CAlifornia. Our Californian historians say that “the present name is very similar to the name given by the areas original inhabitants who called it TAHOO, meaning Big Lake” .
now what is big lake in chinese you say? TA HOO?? ta= big , hoo= lake
maybe the chinese really did cross the landbridge into America way back when then? NOtice how the ESKIMO could be dropped off in Mongolia and look EXACTLY the same as the Mongolians??? hmmmm
and how come MAMA and PAPA are used almost universally by almost every tongue of man???
indeed !! things that make you go hmmmm.
baby makes a sound and the attendant folks assign a value. a newborn baby can’t make many intelligible sounds. grown folks wait and wait for ones they can term a “first word”. it is indeed fun to compare/contrast baby talk:
mama = mother
baba= father in chinese, but “bottle” in my family
nainai = breast in chinese, but “blanket” in my family
ahma= grandma (?)
ahyi= auntie
i also recall “kaka” which meant something “nasty” in our family. any ideas what it means in sinitic baby talk?
if i recall my “war and peace” correctly, “mama” means father in Russian.
Georgian, not Russian. And “mother” is “deda”.
Deda is grand Father in Serbo-Croat.
and the sound ‘de’ is used to signify possession in both french and chinese,
BUT THE OTHER WAY AROUND IN EACH LANGUAGE.
cogitate on that.
The Greek for hippopotamus is ‘ιπποπόταμος = hippopótamos.
Yummy!
This is from a Greek academic who studies the commonalities between Greek and Chinese ancient culture. You can read more at http://www.greecetravel.com/archaeology/mitsopoulou/index.html
[quote=“twocs”]The Greek for hippopotamus is ‘ιπποπόταμος = hippopótamos.
Yummy!
This is from a Greek academic who studies the commonalities between Greek and Chinese ancient culture. You can read more at http://www.greecetravel.com/archaeology/mitsopoulou/index.html
I went to that web site and in the 2nd paragraph, it states that Anthropologist and Archaeologist Theresa Mitsopoulou “has been shunned by her peers in the world of Greek Archaeology”. After reading the article on “Similarities in Greek and Chinese Language”, I can’t help but agree with her peers, at least with regards to the Chinese language.