Where Does the Word Pachyderm Come from?

It's from pachys, meaning "thick," and derma, meaning "skin." In the late 1700s the French naturalist Georges Cuvier adapted the Greek term as pachyderme and used it for any one of a whole assemblage of hoofed animals having thickish skin: elephants, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, tapirs, horses, pigs, and more.

What does pachyderm spell?

any of the thick-skinned, nonruminant ungulates, as elephants, hippopotamuses, and rhinoceroses. an elephant. a person who is not sensitive to criticism, ridicule, etc.; a thick-skinned person.

What's the difference between an elephant and a pachyderm?

As nouns the difference between elephant and pachyderm

is that elephant is a mammal of the order proboscidea , having a trunk, and two large ivory tusks jutting from the upper jaw while pachyderm is someone (or something) with thick skin it is used for animals such as an elephant or a hippopotamus.