Etymo

mammoth

An extinct elephant; also something enormous.

Played on · Day 11 · word 5 of 5

Mammoth came from Russian.

How mammoth reached English

oldest first

Simplified path. The puzzle showed the main steps; the full route is being checked.

  1. Russian

    mamant

    ‘Mammoth’

  2. Dutch

    mammut

    ‘Mammoth’

  3. English

    mammoth

    ‘The extinct elephant’

The story of mammoth

Merriam-Webster traces mammoth through Dutch mammut to Russian mamant. It proposes a deeper Mansi compound, but labels that step as probable. The scored question stays with the documented Russian stage rather than making the uncertain reconstruction compulsory.

Sources differ in how much of the transmission route they include. The deeper Mansi formation is not scored.

Source

Merriam-Webster · mammoth

The word’s etymology and recorded senses.

Related

The adjective for enormous things grew from the name of the animal.

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