Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A foreign businessman or a trader in China.
- n. A foreigner who is a chief executive of a business or company operating in China; a tycoon.
- n. A large, extremely venomous elapid snake (Oxyuranus scutellatus) of Australia and New Guinea, having long fangs and large venom glands.
WordNet 3.0
- n. large highly venomous snake of northeastern Australia
Etymologies
- Chinese (Cantonese) taaî-paan, eminent businessman, head of a firm, equivalent to Chinese (Mandarin) tái, big + bān, class.Wik-Mungan (Aboriginal language of northeast Australia) dhayban. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Indonesia: aulia: A maid who arrived in Surabaya from Taiwan is the 1st suspected Indonesian swine flu carrier according to #metrotv (via @wolwol) fujitasenpai: RT @BrandingComm: Rebranding Idea: instead of “Swine Flu” how about “Hamdemic”, “Aporkalypse” or “Snoutbreak”? antonnyliem: Dimsum@ taipan.”
Global Voices in English » Southeast Asia: Twitter reactions on H1N1 virus
“Heir apparent to Chinese-Filipino taipan John Gokongwei and the driving force behind the rapid expansion of Cebu Pacific, Lance Gokongwei is causing a big splash in the Philippines and across Southeast Asia as he secures more and more routes for the low-cost carrier.”
“Dubbed the "brown taipan," he stands out as an ethnic Filipino tycoon.”
“He was a taipan, one of the big business heads in Shanghai.”
“Money was only part of the recompense for a taipan or griffin, the assistant to a taipan.”
“Addendum and details Oxyuranus temporalis - the new taipan species”
“Mark Hutchinson, reptile and amphibian curator at the South Australian Museum, caught the immature female taipan while it was crossing a dirt track.”
“RESEARCHERS have found a new species of taipan snake slithering in the outback.”
“In the paper A new species of taipan (Elapidae: Oxyuranus) from central Australia, researchers P. Doughty, B. Maryan, S.C. Donnellan and M.N. Hutchinson (in Zootaxa 1422: 45-58: 2007) described Oxyuranus temporalis.”
“This marks the third species of taipan known, and the first in 125 years.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘taipan’.
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Australian Fauna
endemic species of terra australis
phascogale, wombat, ornithoryncus, wambenger, tuan, potoroo, platypus, echidna, bilby, bandicoot, antechinus, numbat and 101 more...
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It's a Snake
Snakes.
araramboya, opisthoglyphous, proteroglyphous, solenoglyphous, centipede-eater, boitatá, matatoro, huille, boine, boomslang, Calamaria, racer and 60 more...
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Unreliable words
Words I do not know (and may have transcribed incorrectly) from the first volume of Clive James' 'Unreliable Memoirs'.
zacs, trays, deckle, metopes, triglyphs, taipan, paspalum, ashlared, revetments, frangible, glurp, dryad and 1 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for taipan.
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