Sea-cow is used in South African English as an old-fashioned name for a hippopotamus — a bulky, semi-aquatic mammal that spends most of its day submerged. The name makes intuitive sense: hippos are enormous, lumbering, and spend their lives in and around water, just like a barnyard cow that refuses to leave the pond. While dated, the term reflects the early Dutch and Afrikaans naming traditions in southern Africa, where settlers described new animals in terms of familiar European ones.
The old safari guide pointed at the river and said the sea-cow had been watching them from the shallows for twenty minutes.
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(South Africa, dated) Hippopotamus.
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
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