taipan
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Cantonese 大班 (daai6 baan1, “big shot, rich businessman”), originally as taepan.[1] Related to tycoon, from Japanese 大君 (taikun).
Alternative forms
Noun
taipan (plural taipans)
- 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, published 2010, page 438:
- The British taipans stood in one sodden circle with their womenfolk, like bored officers at a garrison get-together.
- (Philippines) A tycoon (usually of Chinese Filipino background)
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.
Related terms
Etymology 2
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)
Derived terms
Derived terms
- Central Ranges taipan
- coastal taipan
- inland taipan, western taipan
- Papuan taipan
Translations
venomous snake of the genus Oxyuranus
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References
- John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “taipan”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.
- "taipan" in The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition Unabridged, New York: Random House, Inc, 1987.
Anagrams
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