dugong
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du·gong
(do͞o′gŏng′, -gông′)n.
A herbivorous marine mammal (Dugong dugon), native to tropical coastal waters of the Indian Ocean, Red Sea, and southwest Pacific Ocean and having flipperlike forelimbs and a notched tail.
[New Latin Dugong, genus name, ultimately (partly via French dugon) from dugung, recorded as a local word for the dugong on the Moluccan island of Leti by Ernst Christoph Barchewitz (1687-1758), German travel writer and administrator for the Dutch East Indies Company, perhaps a misreading (with g for y) of *duyung, representing a local pronunciation of standard Malay duyong; akin to Tagalog duyong, dugong, and Malagasy trozona, whale, all from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *duyuŋ, dugong.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
dugong
(ˈduːɡɒŋ)n
(Animals) a whalelike sirenian mammal, Dugong dugon, occurring in shallow tropical waters from E Africa to Australia: family Dugongidae
[C19: from Malay duyong]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
du•gong
(ˈdu gɒŋ, -gɔŋ)n.
a plant-eating aquatic mammal, Dugong dugon, of Indian Ocean shores, having front flippers and a tail fin.
[1790–1800; < New Latin < German]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Noun | 1. | dugong - sirenian tusked mammal found from eastern Africa to Australia; the flat tail is bilobate sea cow, sirenian, sirenian mammal - any of two families of large herbivorous aquatic mammals with paddle-shaped tails and flipper-like forelimbs and no hind limbs genus Dugong - type genus of the Dugongidae comprising only the dugongs |
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