Brewer's: Behemoth

(Hebrew). The hippopotamus; once thought to be the rhinoceros. (See Job xl. 15.)

Behold! in plaited mail, Behemoth rears his head.

Thomson: Summer, 709, 710.

The word is generally, but incorrectly, pronounced Behemoth; but Milton, like Thomson, places the accent on the second syllable.

Scarce from his mold Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheaved His vastness.

Milton: Paradise Lost, vii, 471.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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