Also 8 tapyr. [ad. Tupi tapira or tapyra, now usually called tapyra-ete ‘true’ or ‘real tapir,’ and tapir-ussu ‘great tapir,’ to distinguish it from European cattle, to which the name tapira was also given by the aborigines.] An ungulate mammal of tropical America of the genus Tapirus or family Tapiridæ, somewhat resembling the swine (but more nearly related to the rhinoceros), having a short flexible proboscis.
Originally applied to the species Tapirus americanus of Brazil; thence extended to the two Central American species, T. Dowii and T. Bairdi (also Elasmognathus), and the Malay Tapir, T. (or Rhinochœrus) indicus.
[1568. trans. Thevet’s New Found Worlde, 78 (heading). Tapihire, a beaste.
1580. De Lery, Voyage au Brésil, 312. Tapiroussou, une beste qu’ils nomment ainsi.
1648. Marcgrave, Hist. Nat. Brasiliae, VI. vi. 229. Tapiierete Brasiliensibus, Lusitanis Anta.
1693. Ray, Syn. Quad., 126. Tapiierete.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Tapijerete … the name of an animal found in some parts of America, and called by the Portuguese anta.]
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), IV. 331. The tapir may be considered as the hippopotamos of the New Continent.
1796. Stedman, Surinam, II. xxiii. 176. The flesh of the tapira is delicate, being accounted superior to the best ox-beef. Ibid. (Plate). Tapir.
1834. Nat. Philos. III. Phys. Geog. 55/2 (Usef. Knowl. Soc.). In America, the only representative of these large pachydermatous animals is the tapir.
1865. Tylor, Early Hist. Man., xi. 305. The snout of the tapir … protrudes a little more than that of our pigs.
b. attrib. and Comb. Tapir mouth: see quot.
1891. Syd. Soc. Lex., s.v. Mouth, Tapir month, Landouzy’s term for the peculiar tapir-like expression of mouth produced by wasting of the muscles of the face in myopathic atrophy.
1902. P. Fountain, Mts. S. America, iii. 87. Tapir-beef is the best meat to be obtained in South America.
So Tapiridian, a. belonging to the family Tapiridæ; sb. an animal of this family; Tapirine a., of or pertaining to the tapirs; Tapirodont a. [Gr. ὀδούς, ὀδοντ- tooth], marking a dentition similar to that of the tapirs (Cent. Dict., 1891); Tapiroid a., allied to or resembling the tapirs.
1880. Libr. Univ. Knowl. (N. Y.), VII. 474. The herbivora will contain the suborders proboscidians,… *tapiridians, having long noses but not prehensile or only very slightly so, as the rhinoceros and tapir.
1891. C. F. Holder, Darwin, 206. Animals without the peculiar *tapirine teeth.
1849–52. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., IV. 926/1. In the transverse divisions of the crown we perceive the affinity to the *Tapiroid type.
1880. Dawkins, Early Man, ii. 30. In France [the tapir] is associated with two tapiroid genera.
