Wiktionary

baboon

English

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A baboon

Alternative forms

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Variant spellings[1]

Etymology

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From Middle English babewin, baboin, from Old French babouin, from baboue (“grimace; muzzle”), of West Germanic origin, related to dialectal German Bäppe (“lips; muzzle”), Middle High German beffen (“to bark”), Middle English baffen (“to bark”). See also baff, baffle.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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baboon (plural baboons)

  1. An Old World monkey of the genus Papio, having dog-like muzzles and large canine teeth, cheek pouches, a short tail, and naked callosities on the buttocks. [from 13th c.]
    • 1971, Philip José Farmer, Down in the Black Gang: and others; a story collection, Nelson Doubleday, page 79:
      Mix swallowed the comment he wanted to make, that the council hall stank like a congress of baboons. But he was in no position to insult his host, nor should he. The man was only expressing the attitude of his time.
    • 2012 March-April, John T. Jost, “Social Justice: Is It in Our Nature (and Our Future)?”, in American Scientist‎[1], volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 21 June 2017, page 162:
      He draws eclectically on studies of baboons, descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record.
  2. (colloquial, derogatory) A foolish or boorish person.

Usage notes

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The collective noun for baboons is troop.

Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 “baboon” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)
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