Mamont
/ˈmæmɒnt/noun
An obsolete English word for a mammoth.
Did you know?The word’s ultimate origin is uncertain, but Russian мамонт helped give English both the obsolete form “mamont” and the modern word “mammoth.”
Etymological Timeline
17th Century
Russian
мамонт (mamont)
“Mammoth; a name applied to the enormous fossil elephant remains found in Siberia.”
17th Century
European Russian loanword
mamont
“A mammoth, transmitted into Western European scientific and travel vocabulary.”
1706
English
mamont
“An early English form referring to the fossil elephant.”
18th Century
English
mammoth
“The spelling was reshaped into the modern form, likely under influence from existing animal-name patterns.”
Modern English
English
mammoth
“An extinct elephant-like animal, or something extraordinarily large.”