Other forms: mammals
A mammal is a warm-blooded animal that feeds its young on milk. A marine mammal, mammals and birds, the largest mammal.
Milk is the defining feature, and Linnaeus chose it deliberately in 1758 while campaigning against wet-nursing — a piece of politics buried in the name of a whole class. Hair, three ear bones and a four-chambered heart come with it.
1nounmammalA warm-blooded animal that feeds its young on milk.
“Whales may look like fish, but they are mammals that breathe air.”
mammal is an animal.
Coined by Linnaeus in 1758 from Latin mamma, a breast, because the class is defined by feeding young on milk.
Latin
mammal
English, today
mammal
Borrowed from Latin mammal. Latin mammal, coined 1758 by Linnaeus for the class of mammals, from LL. mammalis (“of the breast”), from Latin mamma (“breast”), perhaps cognate with mamma (mother).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA