gorilla
Pluralgorillas
- 1The largest of the living primates, a knuckle-walking ape native to the forests of central Africa.
A male gorilla beats his chest to warn off rivals.
Mountain gorillas live in small family groups high in the forest.
Note
A sailor's report lies behind the name. Greek Gorillai was a tribe of hairy women described by Hanno the Navigator, a Carthaginian whose voyage may have reached what is now Sierra Leone. The Greek probably came through Punic from an African language. The word once took a Latin-style plural: the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology counted ribs in twenty gorillæ in 1893. Today the plural is simply gorillas.
- 2A big, brutish man who works as a thug, goon, or hired ruffian.
He hired a gorilla to intimidate anyone behind on payments.
The nightclub's gorillas threw the troublemakers out onto the street.
Similarthug, goon, heavy, bruiser, enforcer
Note
Size and menace carry over from the ape to a man valued for his muscle. The word is usually contemptuous, yet it can be grudging rather than hostile. In When the World Screamed (1929), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has a speaker do "the old gorilla the justice" of calling him open-handed with money. The insult can sit alongside real, if reluctant, respect.
- 3A dominant, powerful person or organization; a heavyweight in its field.
The retail gorilla swallowed three smaller competitors last year.
In streaming, a few gorillas dominate while smaller services fight for scraps.
Similargiant, heavyweight, behemoth, titan
Note
Here the bulk is economic rather than physical: this gorilla dominates by sheer size, not by force. It usually comes with a field attached. Computerworld in 1977 called IBM and AT&T "the two industry gorillas." Unlike the hired thug, it says nothing about character, only about weight in a market. It is informal, at home in trade reporting and conversation but out of place in formal prose.
- 4A sum of one thousand pounds sterling, or a thousand dollars.
She handed over a gorilla in cash for the second-hand car.
They were down three gorillas after a bad night at the tables.
Note
Money slang shared by Britain and Australia, so the thousand may be pounds or dollars depending on where it is said. It counts like a unit: a gorilla, three gorillas. Keep it to casual talk about cash. In formal settings, or with listeners outside those places, say "a thousand" instead. Someone who doesn't know the slang is likely to hear the hired thug.
Practice
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Origin
This word comes from Ancient Greek Górillai, the name of a tribe of hairy women described by the Carthaginian navigator Hanno, who may have visited the area that later became Sierra Leone. The Greek word likely came from Punic and ultimately from an African language.