gorilla

gorilla
\ \ [19] The first we hear of gorilla is as a word used in a Greek translation of the 5thcentury BC Carthaginian explorer Hanno’s account of a voyage to West Africa. He reported encountering there a tribe of wild hairy people, whose females were, according to a local interpreter, called goríllas. In 1847 the American missionary and scientist Thomas Savage adopted the word as the species name of the great ape Troglodytes gorilla, and by the 1850s it had passed into general use.

Word origins - 2ed. . 2005.

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  • Gorilla FC — Team Seattle Sounders FC Location Section 120 at Qwest Field …   Wikipedia

  • Gorilla — Sm ein Menschenaffe , übertragen Leibwächter std. (19. Jh.) Onomastische Bildung. Entlehnt aus ne. gorilla. Das Wort taucht zuerst in dem Reisebericht des Karthagers Hanno (5. Jh. v. Chr. ) auf und bezeichnet in Afrika (Kamerun) angetroffene… …   Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen sprache

  • Gorilla — (Gorilla gorilla Wymann, Troglodytes Gorilla Sav., Gorilla gina Geoffr., s. Tafel »Affen II«, Fig. 1), der größte der menschenähnlichen Affen (Anthropomorphen), wird 2 m hoch, hat einen mächtigen Kopf mit hohem Scheitel und Hinterhauptskamm und… …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • gorilla — ☆ gorilla [gə ril′ə ] n. [< Gr gorillai, a tribe of hairy women, recorded by Hanno, Carthaginian navigator, as the native name in use in W Africa in the 5th c. B.C. for wild creatures found there] 1. the largest, and most powerful of the great …   English World dictionary

  • gorilla — 1847, applied to the apes (Troglodytes gorills) by U.S. missionary Thomas Savage, from Gk. gorillai, plural of name given to wild, hairy people in a Greek translation of Carthaginian navigator Hanno s account of his voyage along the N.W. coast of …   Etymology dictionary

  • Gorilla — Gorilla: Das Wort stammt wahrscheinlich aus einer westafrik. Sprache. Es tritt zuerst im 5. Jh. in einer griechischen Übersetzung eines Reiseberichtes des Karthagers Hanno auf, bezieht sich darin aber auf einen Menschenstamm. Mit diesem Wort… …   Das Herkunftswörterbuch

  • Gorilla — Go*ril la, n. [An African word; found in a Greek translation of a treatise in Punic by Hanno, a Carthaginian.] (Zo[ o]l.) A large, arboreal, anthropoid ape of West Africa. It is larger than a man, and is remarkable for its massive skeleton and… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Gorilla — Gorilla,der:⇨Leibwächter …   Das Wörterbuch der Synonyme

  • gorilla — s.m. [dal gr. Górillai pl., adattam. d una voce africana, ripreso nel 1847 dall americano T. S. Savage; nel sign. 3. b sul modello del fr. gorille ], invar. 1. (zool.) [mammifero primate pongide vegetariano che vive in piccoli gruppi nelle… …   Enciclopedia Italiana

  • gorilla — ► NOUN 1) a powerfully built great ape of central Africa, the largest living primate. 2) informal a heavily built aggressive looking man. ORIGIN Greek, representing an alleged African word for a wild or hairy person …   English terms dictionary

  • Gorilla — For other uses, see Gorilla (disambiguation). Blackback and Silverback redirect here. For other uses, see Blackback (disambiguation) and Silverback (disambiguation). Gorillas[1] …   Wikipedia

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