gibbon
noun
- family of apes
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈɡɪbən/ / /ɡɪˈbɑn/
name
Etymology: From Old French Giboin, from Frankish *Gebawin (literally “Gift-friend”).
- A surname.
noun
Etymology: Reborrowing from French gibbon, folk etymology (compare English Gibbon) ultimately from a Northern Aslian language (compare Batek kəboɲ).
- A small ape of the family Hylobatidae with long limbs, which they use to travel through rainforests by swinging from branch to branch.
“'[…] Suppose that in years to come, when the Church's troubles seem to be over, there should come an apostate of my own trade, a false historian, with the mind of Cicero or Tacitus and the soul of an animal,' and he nodded towards the gibbon who fretted his golden chain and chattered for fruit.”