Etymology

gomphothere

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Today it means: Any of the extinct proboscideans of the family Gomphotheriidae, that lived in North America and Eurasia during the Miocene and Pliocene (12—1.6 million years ago), and latterly also in South America (around 3 million to 9100 years ago). Full definition →

Ancient Greek γόμφος
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromγόμφος“nail, peg, fastener, joint”
  2. English todaygomphothere

From Ancient Greek γόμφος (gómphos, “nail, peg, fastener, joint”) + θηρίον (thēríon, “beast”).

Words from the same roots

Ancient Greekγόμφος all →

gomphrenagomphosis

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.