Wiktionary

baboon

EnglishEdit

 
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A baboon

Alternative formsEdit

Variant spellings[1]

EtymologyEdit

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.

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

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, page 79 (Nelson Doubleday)
      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, 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 notesEdit

The collective noun for baboons is troop.

Derived termsEdit

TranslationsEdit

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

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