A springbok is a small, light-brown-and-white antelope that lives in the dry open country of southern Africa. English speakers often call it a kind of deer, and dictionaries sometimes say that too, but strictly it is an antelope — a different family from deer. The animal is famous for one habit: when it is excited or frightened, it jumps straight up into the air with its back arched and its legs stiff, over and over. This jumping has an English name of its own, 'pronking', and it is the whole reason for the animal's name. The word is also very well known as a team name: 'the Springboks' are South Africa's national rugby team, and in sports news you will meet the word far more often with a capital S, meaning the players, than meaning the animal. In everyday English outside South Africa, most people know the word only from wildlife programmes or rugby, so if you use it in conversation you may need to add 'it's a kind of African antelope'.