An
interesting fact about the word 'zebra' is that all
dictionaries get its
origin wrong. They invariable say it's from some
African language, and some of them stick their neck out and
plump for an
Ethiopian or
Congolese language. You will hunt in vain for it in any such
language.
It appears in fact to be a slightly irregular form derived from Latin equi-ferus 'wild horse'. In early stages of Spanish this gave subsequent forms something like ecifera > ecefra > cebra; most of these sound changes are regular, and can be instanced in other Latin words preserved in Spanish, but a couple are just slightly odd (e.g. -qui- > -ci- too early).
However, all documentary evidence for the word supports the Latin origin, and none a supposed African origin.
Source: an Indo-European linguistics mailing list I participated in. One of the members (R.L. Trask) is an adviser to the Oxford English Dictionary and agreed at the end of the discussion to get it changed in future editions.