鸭嘴兽 (yāzuǐshòu): platypus

Literally 'duck-mouth-beast': 鸭 (yā) duck + 嘴 (zuǐ) mouth + 兽 (shòu) beast. The Chinese name describes exactly what makes the platypus weird — a beast with a duck's bill — and is much more transparent than the Greek-derived English 'platypus' ('flat foot').

culture

When Europeans first sent a platypus skin to the British Museum in 1799, scientists thought it was a hoax stitched together from a duck and a beaver. The Chinese name captures that same first-impression bewilderment.