Zedonk – Wacky Word Wednesday

Jinkies, is it Wednesday already? Guess that means it’s time for another word to add to our list for Wacky Word Wednesday. And jeepers, does this week’s word sound like something out of the 1969 Scooby-Doo cartoon. Despite having nothing to do with meddling kids and their talking dog, people dressed up in rubber monster costumes, or really hip ascots for that matter, this week’s word does have everything to do with zebras and donkeys…for what that’s worth.

Today’s definition from Termwiki.com:

ze·donk [zee-dongk] -noun The offspring of a male zebra and a female donkey; A zebra hybrid

Zedonks are also known around the world as zebroids, zonkeys, zebrasses, and zebrulas.

Cross breeding between zebras and horses dates back to the early 19^th century. Zedonks, however, are of such a rare nature, that it is difficult to pinpoint when the first “true” zedonk was born. It makes some sense, as they are unable to reproduce, much like their donkey-horse crossbreed counterpart, the mule. A few zedonks have been discovered in regions where donkeys and zebras neighbor one another, but they are more famously known for being produced in captivity (i.e. zoos). The origin of the word has been placed somewhere between 1970 and 1975, and comes from the first half of the English word for “zebra,” and the first half of the English word “donkey.”

One of the more famously known zedonks is Pippi, named after the fictional character Pippi Longstocking. Pippi was born July 21^st, 2010 at the Chestatee Wildlife Preserve in Dahlonega, Georgia, in the United States. As is the case with most crossbreed births, Pippi was completely unexpected by the preserve’s owners, who had no idea one of their zebras had mated with one of their donkeys.

Below is an example of how you might incorporate the word zedonk into a story you may be planning to write:

• “Oh boy, oh boy, look at that funny thing!” the small child yelled while pointing at the slightly confused looking mammal, short in stature, with striped legs and brown fur covering its torso. “It must be half zebra and half donkey…A zedonk! Or even better, a zebronkey!” the child laughed to himself, taking great pleasure in the two words he had just created (or thought he had created). His father simply smiled, not paying any attention to his son, believing him to simply be in one of his strangely silly moods. He began to gently correct his son, “now, now Junior, there’s no such thing as a–” but before he could finish his sentence, he looked up and noticed that the animal his son had apparently made up was in fact a very real creature, and had been rightfully named. There was no refuting the fact that it was an odd cross between a donkey and a zebra. Stunned in disbelief, all the father could do was silently whisper to himself, “what in the name of Zeus am I looking at…?”        –A story we made up on the spot

Check back at Simply CSOFT for next week’s sure-to-be-groovy wacky word.

If you’re interested in learning more wacky words, make sure to visit csoftintl.com!