baboon

English

A baboon

Alternative forms

• babian, babion

Variant spellings

• (14^th century):
  • babewyne
  • baboyne
• (15^th century):
  • babewen
  • babewin
  • babewyn
  • babwen
  • babwyn
  • baubyn

• (16^th century):
  • baboon
  • baboone
  • babound
  • baboune
  • baboyn
  • babwyne
• (17^th century):
  • baboon
  • baboone
  • baboune
• (18^th century–present):
  • baboon

Etymology

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

• enPR: bəbo͞onʹ, IPA^(key): /bəˈbuːn/,
• IPA^(key): /ˌbæˈbuːn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːn

Noun

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 notes

The collective noun for baboons is troop.

Derived terms

• Anubis baboon (Papio anubis)
• Arabian baboon ()
• baboon spider (Theraphosidae)
• baboonery
• baboonish
• Cape baboon, chacma baboon ()
• dog-faced baboon ()
• gelada baboon ()
• Guinea baboon ()
• hamadryas baboon ()

• Kinda baboon ()
• lion-tailed baboon ()
• olive baboon (Papio anubis)
• sacred baboon ()
• sphinx baboon ()
• ursine baboon ()
• western baboon ()
• wood baboon ()
• yellow baboon ()

Translations

primate

• Afrikaans: bobbejaan (af)
• Arabic: بَابُون m (bābūn)
• Armenian: պավիան (hy) (pavian)
• Azerbaijani: pavian
• Baiso: jaldessa
• Bulgarian: павиа́н m (pavián), песогла́вец (bg) m (pesoglávec)
• Catalan: babuí m
• Cherokee: Ꮖ̃Ꮚ̃Ꮒ (quãquũni)
• Chichewa: nyani
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 狒狒 (zh) (fèifèi)

• Coptic: ⲉⲛ (en)
• Czech: pavián (cs) m
• Dagbani: kparli
• Danish: bavian c
• Dutch: baviaan (nl) m
• Egyptian: (jꜥn)
• Esperanto: paviano
• Estonian: paavian (et)
• Finnish: paviaani (fi)
• French: babouin (fr) m
• Georgian: პავიანი (ṗaviani)
• German: Pavian (de) m
• Greek: μπαμπουίνος (el) m (bampouínos)
• Greenlandic: baviani (kl)
• Hadza: please add this translation if you can
• Hausa: bika
• Hindi: बबून m (babūn)
• Hungarian: pávián (hu)
• Icelandic: bavían m, bavíani m, hundapi m
• Ido: babuino (io)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Ik: tsɔr
• Irish: babún m
• Italian: babbuino (it) m
• Japanese: 狒々 (ひひ, hihi), ヒヒ (ja) (hihi)
• Khoekhoe: ǀnerab
• Korean: 비비(狒狒) (ko) (bibi)
• Luxembourgish: Pavian
• Maori: touwhero
• Navajo: mágí bíchį́į́htsohígíí
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: bavian (no) m

  Nynorsk: bavian m

• Oromo: jaldeesii
• Persian: عنتر (fa) (antar), بابون (bâbun)
• Polish: pawian (pl) m
• Portuguese: babuíno (pt) m
• Romagnol: babuvén m, babuén m
• Romanian: babuin (ro) m
• Russian: бабуи́н (ru) m (babuín), павиа́н (ru) m (pavián)
• Serbo-Croatian: babun (sh) m, pavijan (sh) m
• Slovak: pavián (sk) m
• Sotho: tshwene (st)
• Spanish: babuino (es) m
• Swahili: nyani (sw)
• Swedish: babian (sv)
• Thai: บาบูน (baa-buun)
• Tibetan: ཧྥེ་ཧྥེ (hphe hphe)
• Tswana: tshwene class 9/10
• Turkish: şebek (tr)
• Vietnamese: khỉ đầu chó
• Volapük: babun (vo)
• Welsh: babŵn m
• Wolof: goŋ

See also

• chacma ()
• drill ()
• mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx)
• Appendix:English collective nouns