saola means A critically endangered ruminant of species Pseudoryx nghetinhensis, of Vietnam and Laos. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 91 out of 100.
saola is pronounced /ˈsaʊlə/.
Etymology
Borrowed from Vietnamese sao la, probably from Lao ເສົາຫລ (sao la, “spindle[-horned]”) or some other Tai-Kadai language.
noun
- A critically endangered ruminant of species Pseudoryx nghetinhensis, of Vietnam and Laos.“2013, C. Michele Thompson, 10: Would a saola by any other name still be a saola?, Hue-Tam Ho Tai, Mark Sidel (editors), State, Society and the Market in Contemporary Vietnam, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), page 185,
The current consensus is that the saola is so rare and so solitary in terms of genetic relatives that it should be placed not only in its own separate genus (Pseudoryx) but also in its ”