hircus

Meaning

1. (declension-2, masculine) a buck, male goat
2. (broadly, declension-2, masculine) the rank smell of the armpits
3. (declension-2, figuratively, masculine) a filthy person

Concepts

he-goat

goat

🐐

billy goat

chin beard

goatee

jackalope

Synonyms

caper

capra

haedus

Translations

bok

bouc

bode

τράγος

chivo

🐐

κατσίκα

بزن

chèvre

🐐

Geiß

🐐

Bock

γίδα

capra

🐐

Ziege

🐐

cabró

Pronounced as (IPA)

[ˈhɪr.kʊs]

Etymology

Unknown. As with other Indo-European words for “goat”, a reliable Proto-Indo-European etymon cannot be formally reconstructed. Nonetheless, compare Old High German irah, irh (“buck”), which Pokorny says is borrowed from the Latin. Possibly related to hirpus (“wolf”) and/or hirtus (“hairy, shaggy”); according to Pokorny, all three are from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰers- (“to bristle”).
Varro, in De Lingua Latina cites a Sabine form: fircus.