baboon

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.]

Pronunciation

  • enPR: bəbo͞onʹ · Context: Received Pronunciation
  • IPA: /bəˈbuːn/ · Context: Received Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ˌbæˈbuːn/ · Context: US
  • Context: US · Audio
  • Rhymes: -uːn

Noun

  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.]
    • 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. - 1971, Philip José Farmer, Down in the Black Gang: and others; a story collection, Nelson Doubleday, page 79
    • He draws eclectically on studies of baboons, descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record. - 2012 March-April, John T. Jost, “Social Justice: Is It in Our Nature (and Our Future)?”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 21 Jun 2017, page 162
  2. A foolish, stupid or incompetent person.

    colloquial, derogatory

    1. (highly derogatory, ethnic slur, offensive) A black person.

      colloquial, derogatory

      • The 50-year-old steel worker said he had meant to type Sawyers should win the "buffoon d'Or". He claimed a misspelling, of "bafoon", had autocorrected on his device to "baboon". - 2021 November, “Romaine Sawyers: Albion fan jailed for racist post loses appeal”, in BBC
      • Animalistic dehumanisation, 'simianisation' and the animalising of black bodies through metaphorically likening these individuals to 'baboons,' 'monkeys' or 'apes' reveals racialised animality discourse in South Africa. - 2022 October, René Cornish, Kieran Tranter, “Dismissals for Social Media Hate Speech in South Africa: Animalistic Dehumanisation and the Circulation of Racist Words and Images”, in Springer Nature Link

Origin

Inherited from Middle English babewin, baboin, from Old French babouin, from baboue (“grimace; muzzle”) (whence French babouin), from an imitative origin.

According to Oxford English Dictionary, it was an imitative base *bab-, which is in turn from the (reduplicated) syllable ba, characteristic of early infantile vocalization (and expressive of the movement of the lips in speech).

French babouin was also borrowed into other European languages. Confer Vulgar Latin babouinus ("a grimace"), Vulgar Latin babuinare ("to paint marginal figures in manuscripts"), Italian babbuino, babuino (“baboon”), Dutch baviaan (“baboon”), German Pavian (“baboon”)

For the sense of infant imitation, see English babble (“to blather”), English babe (“darling”), English baby (“infant”).

Forms

baboons babian babion

Related

chacma drill mandrill

Derived

antibaboon Anubis baboon Arabian baboon baboonery babooness babooning baboonish baboonize baboonlike baboon-monkey baboon spider baboon syndrome Cape baboon chacma baboon dog-faced baboon gelada baboon Guinea baboon hamadryas baboon huboon Kinda baboon lion-tailed baboon olive baboon orange baboon tarantula sacred baboon sheboon sphinx baboon ursine baboon western baboon wood baboon yellow baboon