Gorillas

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A large, predominantly herbivorous primate that is native to the forests of Africa and is known for its strength and social behavior
2. A powerful species of ape characterized by its robust build and predominantly vegetarian diet, living in groups within dense jungle habitats
3. A member of the largest family of great apes, recognized for their intelligence, social structures, and primarily plant-based nutrition

Etymology: This is a plural, so the story belongs to the singular "gorilla," which reaches back to a voyage recorded by a Carthaginian navigator. Hanno the Navigator, sailing down the West African coast, reported encountering hairy people he called "Gorillai," which Greek writers later rendered as "Gorillai," a tribe of hairy women. The name seems to have been carried into Greek from Punic, the language of Carthage, and ultimately traces to an African language, though the exact source is uncertain. The name then sat in classical texts for centuries, applied to wild people rather than animals. Apes were not what the name first described, so the modern creature inherited a label that originally belonged to a mythic or half-imagined human race. The word that finally attached itself to the great ape is therefore a survival from a much older story about strange creatures on distant shores.

Synonyms: apes, primates