chimpanzee
Pluralchimpanzees
- 1A great ape native to the savannas and forests of Africa, considered along with the bonobo to be humans' closest living relative.
A wild chimpanzee uses stones and sticks as tools to crack nuts and fish for termites.
Chimpanzees share roughly ninety-eight percent of their DNA with humans.
Similarchimp
Note
The name reached English by 1738, from a Bantu language of Angola (compare Vili ci-mpenzi), and it probably came through French chimpanzé. Zoologists call the animal Pan troglodytes. In careful use the word names this one species and not its relatives. The clipped form chimp refers to the same animal and is the everyday short name.
- 2Any member of the genus Pan, a group of great apes that also includes the bonobo, once known as the pygmy chimpanzee.
The bonobo and the common ape together make up the only two living species of chimpanzee.
Conservationists protect every species of chimpanzee, the bonobo included, across central African forests.
Note
Loose usage stretches the name across the whole genus Pan, so the bonobo counts as a chimpanzee too. That is why it was once called the pygmy chimpanzee. Precise writing keeps the word for the common species and calls the bonobo by its own name. When the wider sense is meant, "species of chimpanzee" makes the broader scope clear.
Practice
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Origin
First recorded in 1738, the name derives from an unspecified Bantu language of Angola (compare Vili ci-mpenzi), and was probably brought into English via French chimpanzé.