[Tibetan ṃdso.] A hybrid bovine animal, bred from a yak bull and a common cow, used for domestic purposes in Northern India. Also called ǁ Zobo, zobu [with masc. affix -bo]. So ǁ Zhomo, also jomo (with fem. affix -mo], a female zho.
1841. Moorcroft, Trav., I. 272. Oxen of the common kind are not used for ploughing, the zho ox, or hybrid male between the yak … and the common cow, or the humped variety called zebu, being greatly preferred, as is its sister, the zhomo, for the dairy. Ploughing is performed by a pair of zhos. Ibid., 309. The Zho or Yak-mule.
1854. Hooker, Himal. Jrnls., I. ix. 213. The zobo … is but rarely seen in these mountains, though common in the North West Himalaya.
1867. A. L. Adams, Wand. Nat. India, 271.
1880. R. Strachey, in Encycl. Brit., XI. 833/2. The yák, from which is reared a cross breed with the ordinary horned cattle of India locally called ‘zobu.’
