Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A burrowing mammal (Orycteropus afer) of sub-Saharan Africa, having a stocky body, large ears, a long tubular snout, and powerful digging claws for feeding on ants and termites.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The ground-hog or earth-pig of South Africa. See Orycteropus.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) An edentate mammal, of the genus Orycteropus (Orycteropus afer), somewhat resembling a pig, common in some parts of Southern Africa. It is a nocturnal ungulate, burrows in the ground with its powerful claws, and feeds entirely on ants and termites, which it catches with its long, extensile, slimy tongue. It is the sole extant representative of the order Tubulidentata.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun slang A silly or credulous person who is prone to mistakes or blunders.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun nocturnal burrowing mammal of the grasslands of Africa that feeds on termites; sole extant representative of the order Tubulidentata

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Obsolete Afrikaans : aarde, earth (from Middle Dutch aerde; see er- in Indo-European roots) + vark, pig (from Middle Dutch varken; see porko- in Indo-European roots).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Afrikaans aardvarken (obsolete), erdvark, from Afrikaans aarde ("earth"), (from Dutch, from Middle Dutch aerde) + Afrikaans vark ("pig"), (from Middle Dutch varken ("pig")).Early European colonists in South Africa noticed that the animal was similar to a pig, while "aarde" hints at the animal's habit of burrowing.

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Examples

  • Look, anyone older than eight who admits to an affection for an animated aardvark is one cool kid.

    04.04 M-mv 2004

  • Look, anyone older than eight who admits to an affection for an animated aardvark is one cool kid.

    Archive 2004-05-01 M-mv 2004

  • Look, anyone older than eight who admits to an affection for an animated aardvark is one cool kid.

    05.04 M-mv 2004

  • Look, anyone older than eight who admits to an affection for an animated aardvark is one cool kid.

    Cool kids, lucky parents M-mv 2004

  • I think the aardvark is pretty much on target: Sunstein chooses to use the phrase to represent a collection of ideas that are being discussed by conservatives, not that they actually use it themselves.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Is “The Constitution in Exile” A Myth?: 2004

  • Look, anyone older than eight who admits to an affection for an animated aardvark is one cool kid.

    05.04 M-mv 2004

  • When the Boers first saw a strange animal in South Africa, they called it aardvark, a Dutch word for ` earth pig. '

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XV No 2 1984

  • He's the kid who taught a world of youngsters how to spell "aardvark" - and that's not all.

    Newsvine - Get Smarter Here AP Television Writer Frazier Moore 2008

  • (Type 'tag' to change that topic, 'cancel', or 'more' for options.) me: tag aardvark: (Type 'tag:' followed by any word or phrase to categorize this question.) me: tag: blogging aardvark: Thanks very much!

    Månhus 2009

  • What fascinates me most about this is that you now have a tag for "aardvark"

    NT Wrong Mostly Dishonest Clues James F. McGrath 2009

Comments

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  • "Being an aardvark is not easy, all you get to eat is ants" - from some song

    February 6, 2007

  • If your last name was Aardvark, you'd likely be the first name called in a roll call.

    May 15, 2007

  • And after your first beating following said roll call, you'd also likely be the first in line for a name change at the Dept. of Records.

    May 15, 2007

  • Aardvark

    Here I am, first in war and first in peace,

    but as far as first in my country is concerned,

    I would rather be sunning in Nice.

    Still, I shall remain at the top of the list

    unless Alvar Aalto is declared a fish.

    With my ears and tail like ripe bananas,

    I roam the nocturnal savannahs after termites,

    whom I love to see stripe

    my tongue,

    while when faced with a lion

    I lower myself into the ground.

    This profound method protects me, and always will,

    until some day

    those lions lose their fear of creatures

    hunched in graves.

    (Richard Grossman)

    November 13, 2007

  • “At a ceremony marking the F-111's USAF retirement, on 27 July 1996, it was officially named Aardvark, its long-standing unofficial nickname. Aardvark literally means "earth pig" in Dutch/Afrikaans, consequently, in Australia, the F-111 is often known by the affectionate nickname ‘Pig’.�? More on Wikipedia.

    December 30, 2008

  • Hideously cute. :-)

    January 13, 2009

  • AWW!!

    January 13, 2009

  • Now that is a fine pair of ears, wouldn't you say?

    January 14, 2009

  • Moriarty: Sapristi brains! You think of everything.

    Grytpype-Thynne: Not everything. Sometimes I don't think of aardvarks.

    Moriarty: You mustn't be so careless. After all, aardvarks never killed anybody.

    —Goon Show episode 'The Lost Emperor'

    July 17, 2009