zebra

Etymology

1600; borrowed from Italian zebra, from Portuguese zebra, zebro (“zebra”), from Old Galician-Portuguese enzebro, ezebra, azebra (“wild ass”), from earlier cebrario (882), ezebrario (897), from Vulgar Latin *eciferus, from Latin equiferus (“wild horse”) (Pliny), from equus (“horse”) + ferus (“wild”). While the word was traditionally pronounced with a long vowel in the first syllable in standard English, during the twentieth century a vowel shift occurred in regions of England, with the shortening of the first vowel. This pronunciation is now used throughout the UK and most Commonwealth nations. The long-vowel pronunciation remains standard in Canadian and American English. (referee): In reference to the black and white striped shirts they wear.

noun

1. Any of three species of subgenus Hippotigris: E. grevyi, E. quagga, or E. zebra, all with black and white stripes and native to Africa.
2. (sports, slang) A referee.
3. (medicine, slang) An unlikely diagnosis, especially for symptoms probably caused by a common ailment. (Originates in the advice often given to medical students: "when you hear hoofbeats, think of horses, not zebras".)
4. (vulgar, derogatory, slang, ethnic slur) A biracial person, specifically one born to a member of the Sub-Saharan African race and a Caucasian.
   “People change countries for all kinds of reasons,” Ross tells me. “But at least one of them was that she had this light-skinned, mixed-race child who had already been called a zebra at school.” 10 April 2021, Alex Clark, “‘I’m 51, I can say what I want’: Leone Ross has overcome her fears”, in The Guardian
5. (informal) A fish, the zebra cichlid.
6. Any of various papilionid butterflies of the subgenus Paranticopsis of the genus Graphium, having black and white markings.
7. A zebra crossing.
   On his way home he'd picked up two economy-sized bags of tortilla chips, and had dropped both when a twat in a Lexus honked him on a zebra . . . 2010, Mick Herron, Slow Horses, page 247