The George and Martha sereis of childrens books feature an animal whose name comes from an ancient Greek word that means what?
Hippopotamus The common hippopotamus ("Hippopotamus amphibius"), or hippo, is a large, mostly herbivorous and aggressive mammal in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae, the other being the pygmy hippopotamus ("Choeropsis liberiensis" or "Hexaprotodon liberiensis"). The name comes from the ancient Greek for "river horse" (ἱπποπόταμος ). After the elephant and rhinoceros, the common hippopotamus is the third-largest type of land mammal and the heaviest extant artiodactyl. Despite their physical resemblance to pigs and other terrestrial even-toed ungulates, the closest living relatives of the Hippopotamidae are cetaceans (whales, dolphins, porpoises, etc.) from which they diverged about . The common ancestor of whales and hippos split from other even-toed ungulates around . The earliest known hippopotamus fossils, belonging to the genus "Kenyapotamus" in Africa, date to around .
Basil (name) The name Basil ( ; "royal, kingly") comes from the male Greek name Vassilios (Greek: Βασίλειος , female version Bασιλική ), which first appeared during the Hellenistic period. It is derived from "basileus" (Greek: βασιλεύς ), a Greek word of pre-Hellenic origin meaning "king", from which words such as basilica and basilisk (via Latin) as well as the eponymous herb (via Old French) derive, and the name of the Italian region Basilicata, which had been long under the rule of the Byzantine Emperor (also called "basileus").