baboon
/bəˈbuːn
/noun
1A large Old World ground-dwelling monkey with a long doglike snout and large teeth.
- Genera Papio and Mandrillus, family Cercopithecidae: several species, including the drill and mandrill. See also gelada.
- They have to contend with elephants, hippos, bushpigs, porcupines, vervet monkeys, baboons and birds which are after their crops.
- By contrast, many Old World monkeys, such as baboons and macaques, live longer, start to reproduce later, and have more time between babies.
1.1An ugly or uncouth person.This is what happened to Benjamin, my bozo of a baboon, who during his brief ascendancy became a jerk....
- It would seem that even they must know of the knuckle-dragging, race-baiting reactionary baboons.
- I guess we know why he acts like such a baboon when he gets loose in public.
Origin
Middle English (denoting a grotesque figure used in architecture): from Old French babuin or medieval Latin babewynus, perhaps from Old French baboue 'muzzle, grimace'.
Baboon was originally used for a carving such as a gargoyle, and probably comes from Old French baboue ‘muzzle’ or ‘grimace’. By about 1400 it was being used for the long-snouted monkey.