Let's say Pat is an English speaker who has a strong understanding of its history and root words, but has never seen or heard of a hippopotamus until reading yo

Let's say Pat is an English speaker who has a strong understanding of its history and root words, but has never seen or heard of a hippopotamus until reading your comment. Without looking the word up, Pat can break down the word into the Greek roots híppos (horse) and potamós (river). From these roots, Pat can assume that a hippopotamus is a "river horse" -- a four-legged animal, probably a large mammal, that lives in or around rivers. Let's say Jordan is a practiced speaker of Toki Pona who has never seen a hippopotamus, and has just now heard "river wonder dog" for the first time ever. Just like Pat, Jordan can infer that this refers to a four-legged animal, probably a mammal, definitely big or impressive, that spends lots of time in water. (The context of rivers is lost, so Jordan might assume that this creature lives on ocean shorelines, or even in open water.) In either language, the creature's name uniquely identifies it to people who are already familiar with the animal, and gives a useful description to people who are unfamiliar with it.