baboon, bab ion, babian

[In Sw. babian; Dan. bavian; Dut. baviaan; Ger. pavian, bavian; Fr. babouin (masc.), babouine (fem.); Sp. babuino; Ital. babbuino, dim in. of babbo papa; Low Lat. baboynus, babuynus, babovinus, babewynus, babuynia, and papio. Skinner and Menage think it cognate with babe, whilst Wedgwood considers that ba and pa, being syllables requiring the lips for their utterance, came to mean the motion of the lips in framing them; also the lips themselves. Deriving baboon from this root ba or pa, he considers it etymologically to mean = the ugly-lipped animal.] 1. Lit .: The English name of those Simiadæ (Monkeys) which have a facial angle as low as 30°, a long, dog-like snout, great canine teeth, large callosities, and capacious cheekpouches. They are cla ed by naturalists chiefly under the genus Cynocephalus. They BABOON. are the lowest in intelligence of all the Simi and the most ugly and animal in look. They are ferocious when full-grown, though the young of at least one species has been domesticated. The mandrill, the drill, the derrias, and some other monkeys of similar affinity, are regarded as baboons. Africa, throughout its whole extent, is their appropriate habitation, though one species is found also in South-western Asia. Some other monkeys, le closely allied to Cynocephali, are popularly known as baboons. "And I am neither your minotaure, nor your centaure nor your babion."-B. Jonson Cynthia's Revels. 2. Fig . (in vituperative language): A man who, for ugline , for want of intellect, for a snarling temper, or some other quality, recalls to mind a baboon.