monitor lizard

English

Wikispecies

Etymology

From the obsolete taxa Monitor and Lacerta monitor now displaced by Varanus within the single-species family Varanidae. The word Monitor is a calque of German Warner, which is a loanword from Arabic وَرَن (waran). The conflation of the two words was encouraged by the lizards' habit of standing on their hind legs and appearing to monitor their surroundings.

Noun

monitor lizard (plural monitor lizards)

1. Any of various large carnivorous lizards of the family Varanidae, all of whose extant species are of genus Varanus, native to Africa, Asia and Australia.

   Synonym: safeguard

Translations

lizard of the genus Varanus

• Afrikaans: varaan, likkewaan (af)
• Arabic: وَرَل m (waral)
• Assamese: গুঁই (gũi), গুঁই সাপ (gũi xap)
• Bau Bidayuh: biowak
• Belarusian: вара́н m (varán)
• Bengali: গুই সাপ (bn) (gui śap), গুইসাপ (bn) (guiśap), গোসাপ (bn) (gōśap)
• Bikol Central: guto
• Bulgarian: вара́н (bg) m (varán)
• Burmese: ဖွတ် (my) (hpwat)
• Catalan: varà (ca) m
• Central Melanau: kelibui, alou
• Chichewa: gondwa
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 巨蜥 (zh) (jùxī)

• Czech: varan m
• Danish: varan c
• Dutch: varaan (nl) m
• Esperanto: varano
• Estonian: varaan
• Finnish: varaani (fi)
• French: varan (fr) m, goanna (fr) f
• German: Waran (de) m
• Hebrew: כּוֹחַ (he) m (kóaẖ)
• Hindi: गोह (hi) f (goh), गोधा (hi) f (godhā)
• Hungarian: varánusz (hu)
• Ido: varano (io)
• Indonesian: biawak (id)
• Irish: laghairt mhonatóra f
• Italian: varano (it)
• Japanese: オオトカゲ (ja) (ōtokage), 大蜥蜴 (おおとかげ, ōtokage)
• Kalmyk: мигүл (migül)
• Kapampangan: timbabalak
• Kazakh: кесел (kesel)
• Korean: 왕도마뱀 (ko) (wangdomabaem)
• Latvian: varāns m
• Lithuanian: varanas m
• Luo: ng'ech
• Macedonian: варан m (varan)
• Malay: biawak (ms)
• Malayalam: ഉടുമ്പ് (ml) (uṭumpŭ)
• Persian: بزمجه (fa) (bozmajje, bozmaje)
• Polish: waran (pl) m
• Portuguese: varano m, lagarto-monitor m, monitor (pt) m
• Punjabi: ਗੋਹ m (goh)
• Russian: вара́н (ru) m (varán)
• Sanskrit: गोधा (sa) f (godhā)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: варан m

  Roman: varan (sh) m

• Shor: қомдат
• Slovak: varan (sk) m
• Slovene: varan m
• Spanish: varano
• Sundanese: bayawak (su)
• Swahili: kenge
• Swedish: varan (sv)
• Tagal Murut: andaatan
• Tagalog: bayawak
• Tausug: bibang
• Thai: เหี้ย (th) (hîia)
• Ukrainian: вара́н (uk) m (varán)
• Vietnamese: kì đà
• West Coast Bajau: paang
• Wolof: mbag mi

See also

• goanna
• Komodo dragon

References

• Zimmern, Heinrich (1915) Akkadische Fremdwörter als Beweis für babylonischen Kultureinfluss (in German), Leipzig: A. Edelmann, page 52