PIE *weis「流れる」「悪臭」から。語源的にはウイルスと同じ。バイソンから発生する生臭い臭いを指す。rとsは発音上の変化。
英語の語源
bison
bison: [14] Bison appears to be of Germanic origin, from a stem *wisand- or *wisund-. This became Old English wesand, which did not survive; and it was acquired again in the 19th century as wisent, borrowed from German wisent, applied to the ‘aurochs’, an extinct species of European wild ox. The b- form came into English via Latin bison, a borrowing from the Germanic. Originally of course referring to the European bison, the term was first applied to the North American species at the end of the 17th century.
bison (n.)
c. 1600, from French bison (15c.), from Latin bison "wild ox," borrowed from Proto-Germanic *wisand- "aurochs" (cognates: Old Norse visundr, Old High German wisunt "bison," Old English/Middle English wesend, which is not attested after c. 1400). Possibly ultimately of Baltic or Slavic origin, and meaning "the stinking animal," in reference to its scent while rutting (see weasel). A European wild ox formerly widespread on the continent, including the British Isles, now surviving on forest reserves in Lithuania. Applied 1690s to the North American species commonly mis-called a buffalo.
例文
1. a herd of bison
群れの野牛
dl>
2.In the year 1700，about 60 million bison wandered freely in North America.
は1700年に約6000万頭の野牛が北米で縦横無尽に活動した。
3.Large herds of bison used to live on the plains of North America.
大群の野牛は過去に北米の大草原に生息していた。
4.Reindeer receded northward and eastward，and bison and horse followed.