markhor

Borrowed from Urdu مارخور (mārxor), from Persian مارخور (mârxor, literally “snake-eater”), from مار (mâr, “snake”) + خور (xor) (present stem of خوردن (xordan, “to eat”)).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmɑːkɔː/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɑɹkɔɹ/
• Hyphenation: mar‧khor

markhor (plural markhors)

1. A large wild goat, Capra falconeri, especially Capra falconeri megaceros, syn. Capra megaceros, having huge flattened spiral horns, found in the western Himalayas.
   • [1889 January], Rudyard Kipling, “Only a Subaltern”, in Under the Deodars (A. H. Wheeler & Co.’s Indian Railway Library; no. 4), Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh: A[rthur] H[enry] Wheeler & Co.; London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, […], →OCLC, page 84:

     He was taught the legends of the Mess Plate, from the great grinning Golden Gods that had come out of the Summer Palace in Pekin to the silver-mounted markhor-horn snuff-mull presented by the last C.O. (he who spake to the seven subalterns).

• markhor on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Capra falconeri on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• Capra falconeri on Wikispecies.Wikispecies