Taipan

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈtʌɪpan/

From Mandarin 大班 (dàbān, "big shot, rich businessman").

Full definition of taipan

Noun

1. A foreign businessman in China; a tycoon. from 19th c.
• 1922, W. Somerset Maugham, "The Taipan":Of course it was very sad, but the taipan could hardly help a smile when he thought how many of these young fellows he had drunk underground.
• 1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society 2010, p. 438:The British taipans stood in one sodden circle with their womenfolk, like bored officers at a garrison get-together.

From the name of the Thaypan tribe of Aboriginal people of central Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia.

Noun

1. Any venomous elapid snake of the genus Oxyuranus, found in Australia and New Guinea. from 20th c.

Derived terms

• Central Ranges taipan
• coastal taipan
• inland taipan
• Papuan taipan

Anagrams

• patina, pinata, piñata