Why do Russians call the capybara a 'водосвинка'?
Капибара: факты о самой большой водосвинке
B2 Russian listening practice · Standard Russian · Picked for people who know more
Водосвинка is a literal-translation alternative for capybara. The genus name is Hydrochoerus (Greek for water-pig); Russian popular science loves to swap the Latin-Greek roots for native Russian ones: вода (water) plus свинка (little pig). The loan капибара runs alongside водосвинка in nature shows and children’s books.
The Russian capybara explainers run on both names. The host opens with « капибара » (the loan), then drops « водосвинка » (the made-from-Russian-roots version), plus the cute forms капибарёнок (baby) and капибариха (female). The clip even riffs « мышь не мышь, хомяк не хомяк » (not a mouse, not a hamster) before settling on водосвинка.
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Harder words in this video
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Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · OpenSubtitles 2018 (HermitDave) (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.
- ▸On Russian nature explainers like Планета Земля (this clip’s source) and В мире животных on Первый канал where calqued names sit beside loans
- ▸In Russian children’s nature books from publishers like Махаон and Росмэн, and on Детское радио when hosts walk through exotic species
- ▸In Russian-language coverage of Latin American wildlife in N+1 and Naked Science when authors prefer descriptive over loaned names
- ▸In Russian-language zoo signage and tour scripts at the Московский зоопарк and the Ленинградский зоопарк, where double-naming is standard