Sino-Korean word from 麒麟 The archaic sense of legendary animal is attested in the two-millenia old Confucianist Classic of Rites that reads bonghwang-girin (鳳凰麒麟).[1] Since Admiral Zheng He took the giraffe from Somalia to China in 1414, this Hanja word was equated with Somali geri or the like meaning "giraffe" then (See Citations:기린), which on the other hand may have influenced the etymology of Italian giraffa (since Medici giraffe in 1486) and its European derivatives via Arabic زرافة(zarāfa, zurāfa).
