taipan
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tai·pan 1
(tī′păn′)n.
1. A powerful businessman in China or Southeast Asia.
2. The head of a British trading company in colonial Hong Kong.
[Cantonese daai6 baan1, eminent businessman, head of a firm, Cantonese, daai6, big, great (from Middle Chinese tɦaj`; also the source of Mandarin dà), Cantonese baan1, class (from Middle Chinese pa⋮n, division, class; see honcho).]
tai·pan 2
(tī′păn)n.
Any of several large brown venomous elapid snakes of the genus Oxyuranus of Australia and New Guinea, especially O. scutellatus.
[Wik-Mungkan (Pama-Nyungan language of northeast Australia) dhay-ban.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
taipan
(ˈtaɪˌpæn)n
(Animals) a large highly venomous elapid snake, Oxyuranus scutellatus, of NE Australia
[C20: from a native Australian language]
taipan
(ˈtaɪˌpæn)n
(Commerce) the foreign head of a business in China
[C19: from dialectal form of Chinese tai great + ban company, class]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
tai•pan1
(ˈtaɪ pæn)n.
(in China) the head of a foreign business.
[1825–35; < Chinese (Guangdong dial.) daaih-bāan, akin to Chinese dàbǎn=dà great + bǎn company, class]
tai•pan2
(ˈtaɪ pæn)n.
a large, highly venomous elapid snake, Oxyuranus scutellatus, of New Guinea and N Australia.
[1930–35; < Wik-Munkan (Australian Aboriginal language), recorded as tay-pan]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
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| Noun | 1. | taipan - large highly venomous snake of northeastern Australia elapid, elapid snake - any of numerous venomous fanged snakes of warmer parts of both hemispheres genus Oxyuranus, Oxyuranus - taipans |
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