taipan1
/ˈtʌɪpan
/noun
A foreigner who is head of a business in China.According to the January, 1935 edition of Fortune Magazine, the average salary of taipans working in large foreign hongs was $75,000 per year....
- Sources say he is frequently sought out for advice and counsel by real taipans, some of Hong Kong's most powerful businessmen.
- Maggie Keswick's family had been merchants in China for 150 years and, by marrying into the Jardine family, became taipans of the Jardine Matheson company - a corporation which virtually ran Hong Kong.
Origin
Mid 19th century: from Chinese (Cantonese dialect) daaihbāan.
Rhymes
taipan2
/ˈtʌɪpan/noun
A large brown highly venomous Australian snake.
- Genus Oxyuranus, family Elapidae: two species, in particular O. scutellatus.
- Even Australia's most dangerous snake, the taipan, carries enough venom to kill 30 adults, but its bite is not actually very painful, and it can take several hours for an untreated victim to die.
- Just this February, Dr. Fry and his colleagues filed a patent for a molecule found in the venom of the inland taipan that may help treat congestive heart failure.
Origin
1930s: from Wik Munkan (an extinct Aboriginal language of North Queensland) dhayban.