orangutan

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a large, long-armed arboreal ape of the genus Pongo, native to the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra

   The orangutan moved deliberately through the canopy while holding its infant close.

Simplified etymology

Orangutan comes from Malay words meaning ‘person of the woods’.

Borrowed through Dutch orang-oetan from Malay orang hutan, literally 'forest person,' from orang, 'person,' + hutan, 'forest.' Historical English forms altered the second element by analogy with orang, producing spellings such as orang-outang and ourang-outang.

Topics

External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary