taipan

See also: tāipán and tai-pan

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtʌɪpan/

Etymology 1

From Cantonese 大班 (daai6 baan1, “big shot, rich businessman”), originally as taepan. Related to tycoon, from Japanese 大君 (taikun) – the first half of both comes from the Chinese root 大 (“big, great”).

Alternative forms

• taepan (historical)
• tai-pan
• typan (historical)

Noun

taipan (plural taipans)

1. A foreign businessman in China; a tycoon. [from 19th c.]
   • 1922, W. Somerset Maugham, "The Taipan":

     Of course it was very sad, but the taipan could hardly help a smile when he thought how many of these young fellows he had drunk underground.

   • 1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society 2010, p. 438:

     The British taipans stood in one sodden circle with their womenfolk, like bored officers at a garrison get-together.

Usage notes

Relatively narrow usage, and somewhat dated (early/mid 20th century); primarily known outside of China due to use in fiction set in Hong Kong, notably The Taipan (1922) by Somerset Maugham and Tai-Pan (1966) by James Clavell. Even in Hong Kong, the more globally widespread (and distantly related) tycoon is more common today.

Related terms

• tycoon

Etymology 2

An inland taipan (Oxyuranus microlepidotus)

From the name of the Thaypan tribe of Aboriginal people of central Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia, or from Wik-Mungkan tay-pan (or dhayban).

Noun

taipan (plural taipans)

1. Any venomous elapid snake of the genus Oxyuranus, found in Australia and New Guinea. [from 20th c.]

Derived terms

Derived terms

• Central Ranges taipan
• coastal taipan

• inland taipan
• Papuan taipan

Translations

venomous snake of the genus Oxyuranus

• Belarusian: тайпаны (tajpany)
• Bulgarian: тайпан (tajpan)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 太攀蛇 (tàipānshé)

• Czech: taipan
• Finnish: myrkkytarhakäärme, taipaanit
• German: Taipane
• Japanese: タイパン (ja) (taipan)
• Korean: 타이판독사 (taipandoksa)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Lithuanian: taipanai
• Portuguese: taipan f
• Russian: тайпа́н m (tajpán)
• Serbo-Croatian: тајпан
• Slovene: tajpan
• Thai: สกุลงูไทปัน
• Turkish: taipan
• Wik-Mungkan: thaypan

Anagrams

• Aptian, patina, pinata, piñata

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Indonesian

Etymology

From Cantonese 大班 (daai6 baan1, “big shot, rich businessman”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈt̪ai̯pan]
• Hyphenation: tai‧pan

Noun

taipan (plural taipan-taipan, first-person possessive taipanku, second-person possessive taipanmu, third-person possessive taipannya)

1. taipan, tycoon: A wealthy and powerful business person.

   Synonyms: konglomerat, taiko

Further reading

• “taipan” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

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Portuguese

Noun

taipan f (plural taipans)

1. taipan (venomous snake of the genus Oxyuranus)