Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A South African antelope (Damaliscus lunatus) having curved ridged horns.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The bastard hartbeest, Damalis or Alcelaphus lunatus, of South Africa. The sassaby resembles the hartbeest, A. caama, but stands somewhat higher at the withers, and its horns are gently curved rather than abruptly bent. It is one of the group of large bubaline antelopes of which the blesbok is another, but the sassaby lacks the white blaze on the face. (Compare cut of blesbok.) The horns are about a foot long. The animal is much hunted both for its hide and for its flesh, and has been thinned out in countries where it formerly abounded. It inhabits by preference open places, sometimes in herds of several hundreds.
Wiktionary
- n. dated A large African antelope (Alcelaphus tunata), similar to the hartebeest, but having its horns regularly curved.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) A large African antelope (Alcelaphus lunata), similar to the hartbeest, but having its horns regularly curved.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a large South African antelope; considered the swiftest hoofed mammal
Etymologies
- Sotho (Tswana) tshêsêbê. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“[386-2] The sassaby is a large African antelope, resembling the hartbeest, but having regularly curved horns.”
“I had just cooked my breakfast, and commenced to feed, when I heard my men exclaim, "Almagtig keek de ghroote clomp cameel;" and, raising my eyes from the sassaby [386-2] stew, I beheld a truly beautiful and very unusual scene.”
“On, swifter than a sassaby and surer-footed than a fox; now the worst of the road was passed, and a long, smooth slope, almost free from stones, led them to the grassy plain beneath.”
“There were all sorts of them, springbucks in myriads, blesbok and quagga and wildebeeste in thousands, sable antelope, sassaby and hartebeeste in herds, eland, giraffe and koodoo in troops; while the forests were full of elephant and the streams of sea-cow.”
“At length, pushing on ahead, we saw before us a small antelope called a sassaby.”
“We have a grand supper to-night," said Alexander; "what shall I help you to -- harte-beest, sassaby, or rhinoceros?”
“Swinton put aside the skin of the sassaby that he was cleaning, and walked with them to where the men were assembled, and was not a little surprised when he saw the skins and jaws of the lion and lioness.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘sassaby’.
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South African
blikoor, blaazop, nsambi, harder, grass owl, dagga, hyena dog, induna, duykerbok, deloo, english-weed, emgalla and 214 more...
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Quenelles of Random Palavery
More randomly-garnered terms from the world of words that don't quite yet fit into my other lists.
Goddidit, barcelona, filigrain, good-natured, ill-natured, half-bit, endosome, underplaying, parotid, denormalization, sleightgeist, wheezing and 2334 more...
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antelopes
addax
a large light-coloured antelope with curled horns. L. from an African word quoted by Pliny.
antelope
any one of a group of hollow-horned...addax, antelope, antilopine, ariel, blackbuck, blaubok, bluebuck, bloubok, blesbok, blesbuck, bok, bongo and 479 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for sassaby.
bilby I'm more of a bastard potoroo. Nov 1, 2011
hernesheir Funny, I think of bilby when I see this word. Nov 1, 2011