chimpanzee

Etymology

The dictionaries agree that it comes from a Bantu language of Angola or the Congo, but differ on which.^[2][3][4][5] The OED takes it as a borrowing from Kikongo, an African language of Angola,^[4] and several Oxford dictionaries bring it through French chimpanzé,^[6][7][8][9] a form the OED only compares.^[4] Merriam-Webster gives the Kongo dialect forms chimpenzi and kimpenzi,^[10][11] and Partridge likewise cites chimpenzi from a Kongo dialect south of the Congo.^[12] The American Heritage Dictionary derives it through Portuguese from Vili ci-mpenzi, Vili being a Bantu language of Congo.^[5] Etymonline and Barnhart compare Luba-Kasai kivili-chimpenze (“ape”).^[2][3] Dictionary.com says only that it is presumably from a Bantu language of the Atlantic coast.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The large African ape: 1738, in the London Magazine.^{[4][2][3][10]}

Semantic evolution

In the OED's 1889 entry the word named a genus of African apes, the ones closest to humans among the anthropoids.^[4] Modern dictionaries use it for either of the two apes of the genus Pan, the common chimpanzee and the pygmy chimpanzee or bonobo, and in a narrower sense for the common chimpanzee alone.^[5][6][14] The short form chimp is recorded from 1877, in Edward Lear's Laughable Lyrics.^[4][2]

Timeline

• 1738 – the African ape.^[4][2][3] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1730–40.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. Either of two African apes of the genus Pan, the common chimpanzee and the bonobo, with black hair and a bare face, noted for their intelligence.^[5][6]
2. Specifically, the common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) of the forests of western and central Africa, an anthropoid ape smaller and more arboreal than the gorilla: A young chimpanzee was using a twig to fish for termites.^[5][14][15]

Word family

• chimp
• pygmy chimpanzee

Usage notes

Merriam-Webster records the pronunciation with stress on the last syllable as well as on the second, and an occasional pronunciation beginning with sh-.^[10]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
13. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
15. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins