baboon: [14] The origins of baboon are obscure, but it seems that the notion underlying it may be that of ‘grimacing’. Baboons characteristically draw back their lips in snarling, revealing their teeth, and it has been speculated that there may be a connection with Old French baboue ‘grimace’. However that may be, it was certainly in Old French that the word first surfaced, as babuin, and originally it meant ‘gaping figure’ (as in a gargoyle) as well as ‘ape’. This alternative meaning was carried over when the Old French word was borrowed into English, where it remained a live sense of baboon until the 16th century.
baboon (n.)
type of old world ape, c. 1400, babewyn, earlier "a grotesque figure used in architecture or decoration" (early 14c.), from French babouin "baboon," from Old French baboin "ape," earlier "simpleton, dimwit, fool" (13c.), also "gaping figure (such as a gargoyle)," so perhaps from Old French baboue "grimacing;" or perhaps it is imitative of the ape's babbling speech-like cries. Also see -oon. German Pavian "baboon" is from Dutch baviaan, from Middle Dutch baubijn, a borrowing of the Old French word. Century Dictionary says Arabic maimun probably is from the European words.
雙語例句
1. Baboon organs are too small to sustain people for long periods.
狒狒器官太小,無法支撐人類太長時間.
來自英漢非文學 - 生命科學 - 醫學的第四次革命
2. He moves like a baboon with two club feet.
他的動作,像一只有兩條畸形腿的狒狒.
來自電影對白
3. A baboon is a large monkey that lives in Africa.
狒狒是一種生活在非洲的大猴子.
來自互聯網
4. If we had tails a baboon, where are they?
假如我有象狒狒那樣的尾巴, 那么他們在哪兒 呢 ?
來自互聯網
5. The quality and stability of baboon relationships trump quantity, the researchers say.