Etymology

monitor lizard

Today it means: Any of various large carnivorous lizards of the family Varanidae, all of whose extant species are of genus Varanus, native to Africa, Asia and Australia. Full definition →

Arabic وَرَن
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The story

  1. Arabic · derived fromوَرَن
  2. English todaymonitor lizard

From the obsolete taxa Monitor and Lacerta monitor now displaced by Varanus within the single-genus family Varanidae. The word Monitor is a calque of German Warner, which is a loanword from Arabic وَرَن (waran). The conflation of the two words was encouraged by the lizards' habit of standing on their hind legs and appearing to monitor their surroundings.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.