gorilla English · revision 1975

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ɡəˈɹɪl.ə/, /ɡɒˈɹɪl.ə/ ''(UK)''; /ɡəˈɹɪl.ə/ ''(US)''^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|la-new|gorilla]],^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU) [[der|grc|Γόριλλαι|tr=Górillai]],^(AHD)^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU) the name of a tribe of wild, hairy people in a Greek translation of the Carthaginian navigator Hanno's account of his voyage along the coast of West Africa (about 500 BC).^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline)^(AHD)^(RHWU) It is said to be an African word.^(Etymonline)^(AHD)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The largest anthropoid ape, of western equatorial Africa (1847 in Barnhart, Etymonline and Merriam-Webster; the OED's first quotation is from 1799).^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline)^(MW Collegiate)^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Hanno's interpreters called the creatures ''Gorillae''; they were probably chimpanzees or other apes.^(Etymonline)^(AHD) In 1847 the American missionary Thomas S. Savage, drawing on this classical source, applied the name to the great ape he described as ''Troglodytes gorilla''.^(AHD)^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1995) From 1884 the word was also applied to a person resembling a gorilla,^(OED 1989) and then to a brutish man or a thug.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c500 BC – Hanno's voyage.^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline)

+ * 1799 – first quotation (OED).^(OED 1989)

+ * 1847 – applied to the ape by Thomas Savage.^(AHD)^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline)

+ * 1884 – a person resembling a gorilla.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A very large ape of the forests of equatorial Africa, with a stocky body and dark hair.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A brutish or ugly man.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A thug or hoodlum.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[gorillalike]]

+ * [[gorilloid]]

+ * [[800-pound gorilla]]

+ * [[mountain gorilla]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[ape]]

+ * [[chimpanzee]]

+ * [[orangutan]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}