the.com/zoo

Humanity's way of apologizing to animals by charging admission to stare at them.

means A park where wild animals are kept in enclosures for public viewing, conservation, and study.

from Short for 'zoological garden' — 'zoological' tracing back to Greek 'zoion' (animal) plus 'logia' (study). The clipped form 'zoo' caught on in the 1800s, first as casual slang, especially popularized by London's Zoological Gardens, before it wandered off and became the only name anyone actually uses.

origin
short for zoological garden, coined 1847 london
oldest zoo
vienna's schonbrunn, running since 1752
conservation flip
many now breed species extinct in the wild
etymology joke
word itself is basically an abbreviation of an abbreviation
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