The word "dassiepis" is an Afrikaans term meaning "rock hyrax". It is spelled as "dassie" (pronounced "dah-see") which means "rock rabbit" and "pis" (pronounced "peas") which means "urine". The phonetic transcription for "dassie" is /ˈdɑsi/ and for "pis" is /pɛs/. The word "dassiepis" is commonly used in South Africa to describe the distinctive smell that rock hyraxes emit, which is due to the high concentration of uric acid in their urine.