baboon

• babian, babion

From Middle English babewin, baboin, from Old French babouin, from baboue (“grimace; muzzle”), of Germanic origin, related to German dialectal Bäppe (“lips; muzzle”), Middle High German beffen (“to bark”), Middle English baffen (“to bark”). See also baff, baffle.

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: bəbo͞onʹ, IPA^(key): /bəˈbuːn/,[1]
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌbæˈbuːn/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːn

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.
   • 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, 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.

The collective noun for baboons is troop.

• chacma
• drill
• mandrill
• Appendix:English collective nouns