Etymology

chimpanzee

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Today it means: Pan troglodytes, a species of great ape native to the savannas and forests of Africa, and believed by biologists to be the closest extant relative to humans along with the bonobo. Full definition →

Bantu ← French chimpanzé
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The story

  1. French · derived fromchimpanzé
  2. Bantu · derived from
  3. English todaychimpanzee

The first recorded use of the name chimpanzee dates to 1738. The name is derived from an unspecified Bantu language of Angola (compare Vili ci-mpenzi), probably brought to the English language via French chimpanzé.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.