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Horse is to Equine as Donkey is to ...?

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  • 31
    Donkular. (Just kidding...)
    – j_random_hacker
    Jun 30, 2015 at 10:55

6 Answers 6

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56

asinine : of, relating to, or resembling an ass

(also extremely or utterly foolish), M-W.

In perspective:

aquiline - eagle
asinine - donkey
bovine - cattle
cancrine - crab
canine - dog
cervine - deer
corvine - crow
equine - horse
elapine - snake
elaphine - red deer
feline - cat
hircine - goat
leonine - lion
leporine - rabbit, hare
lupine - wolf
murine - rodent
pavonine - peacock
piscine - fish
porcine - pig
rusine - deer
serpentine - snake
ursine - bear
vulpine - fox

(source (edited): input by beatlesfanatic123456 to this post)

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  • 6
    What, no anemonine?
    – Araucaria - Not here any more.
    Jun 30, 2015 at 10:58
  • 4
    how come deer get three?
    – jk.
    Jun 30, 2015 at 12:13
  • 4
    For completeness sake, Ovine could be added too.
    – Simon O'Hanlon
    Jun 30, 2015 at 12:44
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    It should be noted that asinine usually carries a heavy negative connotation, as opposed to the generally neutral connotation of equine.
    – Zann Anderson
    Jun 30, 2015 at 16:47
  • 5
    @abligh Thanks a lot. You just got me flagged at work for going to a site called "Fantastic Asses"
    – dberm22
    Jun 30, 2015 at 19:57
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As other answers have pointed out, asinine is an adjective relating to donkeys. In addition, donkeys are also equine. Equine means relating to the horse family, which happens to include donkeys as well as asses and zebras.

The small contribution of this answer here is to provide a list of animals and corresponding animal adjectives with the -ine suffix. This has been partially gleaned from this page at tinyonline.co.uk. It's alphabetical, so you'll need to scroll to the animal you're interested in:

A

ant formicine, myrmecine

anteater myrmecophagine

antelope antilopine

armadillo tolypeutine

ass asinine

B

badger meline, musteline

barracuda percesocine

basilisk lizard basilicine

bat noctilionine, pteropine

bear ursine

bird avine, volucrine

bird of prey accipitrine

bison bisontine

bull taurine

butterfly pieridine, pierine

buzzard cathartine, pyrrhuloxine

C

calf vituline

camel cameline

carp cyprine

cat feline

chicken galline

coral coralline

cormorant phalacrocoracine

cow bovine vaccine

crab cancrine

crocodile crocodiline

crow corvine

cuckoo cuculine

D

deer cervine

dodo didine

dog canine

dolphin delphine

domestic fowl galline

dormouse myoxine

dove columbine

dragon draconine

E

eagle aquiline

earthworm lumbricine

elephant elephantine

ermine musteline

F

fish piscine

flea pulicine

fox vulpine

frog ranine

fur seal otarine

G

gerbil cricetine

giant ground sloth megatherine

gibbon hylobatine

giraffe giraffine

H

hamster cricetine

hare leporine

hawk accipitrine, falconine

hippopotamus hippopotamine

horse caballine, equine

human hominine

hummingbird trochilidine, trochiline

humpback whale megapterine

I

ibis ibidine

J

jay garruline

K

kangaroo macropine, macropodine

kea nestorine

kingfisher dacelonine, halcyonine

kite milvine

L

lemming microtine

lemur lemurine

leopard pardine

limpet patelline

lion leonine

lizard lacertine

lobster homarine

louse pediculine

lynx lyncine

M

macaw psittacine

mamba elapine

manatee manatine

mite acarine

mockingbird mimine

mole talpine

mongoose herpestine, viverrine

moose cervine

mosquito aedine, anopheline, culicine

mouse murine, musine

musk ox ovibovine

N

nuthatch sittine

O

octopus octopine

opposum didelphine

oriole icterine

ostrich struthionine

otter lutrine, musteline

owl strigine

ox bovine, taurine

oyster ostracine

P

panther pantherine

parrot psittacine

partridge perdicine

peacock pavonine

perch percine

pheasant phasianine

pig porcine, suilline

pigeon pullastrine

polecat musteline

porcupine hystricine

porpoise phocaenine

python pythonine

Q

quail coturnine

R

rabbit leporine

rat murine

rattlesnake crotaline

rhinoceros ceratorhine, rhinerocerine

robin turdine

rodent glirine

S

salamander salamandrine

sea horse hippocampine

sea lion otarine

seal phocine

serpent serpentine

sheep ovine

shrew soricine

silkworm bombycine

skunk mephitine, musteline

skylark alaudine

snake anguilline, anguine, colubrine, serpentine, viperine

sparrow emberizine, passerine

sphinx sphingine, sphinxine

squirrel sciurine

starling sturnine

swan cygnine

T

termite termitine

tick acarine

tiger tigrine

titmouse parine, penduline

toad bufotenine

tortoise testudine

turkey meleagrine

V

viper viperine

vole microtine

vulture cathartine, vulturine

W

walrus odobenine

wasp vespine

weasel musteline

wolf lupine

wren troglodytine

Z

zebra equine hippotigrine, zebrine

If you want to see a lot of other lists which have snaffled lots of info from various dictionaries, you could try any of these:

http://www.dnafrequencies.com/dp/terms.shtml

http://www.davekoelle.com/animal_terms.html

https://elisabethaskin.wordpress.com/2011/08/10/27/

http://www273.pair.com/med/words/animal_adjectives.htm

http://www.dnafrequencies.com/dp/terms.shtml

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    I'm trying to figure out why we need to see the adjective for wasps and warblers, etc., when the OP asked about donkeys? :-/
    – Kristina Lopez
    Jun 30, 2015 at 13:39
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    @ShaulBehr Simian comes from the Latin for ape, "simia". In modern biology it refers to both apes and monkeys, namely animals or the infraborder Simiiformes. It ends in 'n' but this is just derivation from the Latin simia it does not have the Latin suffix -inus, meaning like, which is where the other English adjectives ending in -ine get the modern suffix from :)
    – Araucaria - Not here any more.
    Jun 30, 2015 at 14:49
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    Your verb "crimped" should actually be "cribbed". Crimp means to make something ruffled. Crib, as a verb, has several meanings, one of which is to copy sth. dishonestly. I read once it came from Cambridge University student slang, but cannot find a reference for such an etymology at the moment.
    – Nicholas Shanks
    Jun 30, 2015 at 15:14
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    I think there's a policy against copying and pasting entire pieces of content like this. It's recommended instead to copy a relevant sample (e.g. trim it down to the 'A' section which contains 'Ass', or a selection of equine animals). That would be "fair use", while this could be copying/plagirism which might be illegal depending on that site's copyright and might be penalised by search engines as duplicate content.
    – user56reinstatemonica8
    Jun 30, 2015 at 15:44
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    @user568458 Well, it's now a partial list. But I can't copyright a list of all the letters in the alphabet even if I put it on my website. That list is just a compilation like thousands of others on the web (one identical one, probably the original of this reverse-engineered one, now included in the post) that just regurgitates info that's well-known and in the public domain without any comment, translation or personal input. But if I'm wrong about that I'll happily delete this list
    – Araucaria - Not here any more.
    Jun 30, 2015 at 20:16
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The donkey (equus africanus asinus) is one of the Equidae (horses), which are in the order Perissodactyla (odd-toed ungulates) which are, yes, Ungulates (hoofed), and the ungulates are Mammals. as people have said. So donkeys are in all of these groups, and we could refer to them indirectly by using the name of any one.

But there is only one term to use for donkeys exclusively, and that is their own: asinine. (+1 to anemone).

(Also, if we give the answer "equine", the OP's comparison becomes "Horse is to Equine as Donkey is to Equine. Don't work, really, do it?)

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1 
I had a Donkey, that was all right,
But he always wanted to fly my Kite;
Every time I let him, the String would bust.
Your Donkey is better behaved, I trust.

A problem with other answers here is that many donkeys are not a bit asinine. In modern English usage, the application of that word to 'personages with long ears' has been overwhelmed by its application to unpleasant humans. So, depending on the particular writing problem you are trying to solve, you may prefer some more complex expression. Descriptive words like 'stubborn,' 'braying', or 'unaccountably handsome' might serve.

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  • 1
    Actually I was writing an essay involving an actual donkey, and I wanted some synonyms to relieve the overuse of the word "donkey". So "asinine" was perfect, especially coming as it did in the context of some really stupid behavior.
    – Shaul Behr
    Jun 30, 2015 at 11:41
  • So, should we eschew perfectly good English usage because a word has more than one meaning? Do we allow people to choose from a variety of meanings using knowledge, resources and more importantly, context? Or do we insist that every word should have an unambiguous single meaning?
    – Margana
    Jun 30, 2015 at 11:46
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    @Margana are you trying to be clear? My claim is that, in common usage, asinine has travelled well past 'ambiguous'. If you write asinine, no reader is going to think about furry ears. In any case, I wrote, 'you may prefer.' You may prefer not.
    – bmargulies
    Jun 30, 2015 at 11:49
  • @bmargulies: sorry. I wasn't really aiming my comment at your specific answer, which I think works ok. I was trying to query a more general point about whether we always need to go with the most obvious choices, regardless of context. I'd have had no trouble identifying the meaning of asinine if I was reading about donkeys, I think.
    – Margana
    Jun 30, 2015 at 11:57
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    Before today I didn't even associate asinine with actual donkeys, and would have credited OP with a clever pun when I read it
    – Gus
    Jun 30, 2015 at 12:50
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A donkey in an equine:

Equine animals:

  • Equines are the members of the horse family and have single hoofed feet. The equines are the horse, donkey, mule and hinny. The father of the hinny is a horse and the mother is a donkey.

(www.fao.org)

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0

Equine is more of a scientific-rooted word, which effectively means that Horses are Equine because they belong to the genus Equus, and so do the Donkeys. But, still, Equine is a specific word used just for horses. One can use Assinine for Donkeys though.

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  • I don't think anyone uses assine. Is that a typo for asinine?
    – FumbleFingers
    Jun 30, 2015 at 11:32

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