Taipan definition
The head of a British trading company in colonial Hong Kong.
noun
Any of several large brown venomous elapid snakes of the genus Oxyuranus of Australia and New Guinea, especially O. scutellatus.
noun
Any of several large brown venomous elapid snakes of the genus Oxyuranus of Australia and New Guinea, especially O. scutellatus.
noun
A powerful businessman in China or Southeast Asia.
noun
A deadly venomous snake (Oxyuranus scutellatus) of the cobra family, found mainly in Australia.
noun
Advertisement
Other Word Forms
Noun
Singular:
taipan
Plural:
taipansOrigin of taipan
- Cantonese daai6 baan1 eminent businessman, head of a firm Cantonese, daai6 big, great (from Middle Chinese tfiaj`) (also the source of Mandarin dà) Cantonese baan1 class (from Middle Chinese paːn division, class honcho)
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
- Wik-Mungkan (Pama-Nyungan language of northeast Australia) dhay-ban
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
- From the name of the Thaypan tribe of Aboriginal people of central Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia.
From Wiktionary
- From Mandarin 大班 (dàbān, “big shot, rich businessman").
From Wiktionary