taipan

See also: tāipán and tai-pan

English

Pronunciation
  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈtʌɪpan/

Etymology 1

From Cantonese 大班 (daai6 baan1, “big shot, rich businessman”), originally as taepan.[1] 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.

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[2] (or dhayban[3]).

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
Translations

References
  1. “taipan” in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, →ISBN.
  2. "taipan" in The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition Unabridged, New York: Random House, Inc, 1987.
  3. "taipan" in Joan Hughes, editor, Australian Words and Their Origins, p. 570. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Anagrams

Portuguese

Noun

taipan f (plural taipans)

  1. taipan (venomous snake of the genus Oxyuranus)
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