monitor lizard

English

Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis)

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Southern England):

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Noun

monitor lizard (plural monitor lizards)

1. 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.

   Synonym: safeguard

2. Also: the earless monitor lizard (Lanthanotus borneensis, the sole member of the family Lanthanotidae).

Derived terms

• earless monitor lizard

Translations

lizard of the genus Varanus

• Afrikaans: varaan, likkewaan (af)
• Akan: ɔmampam class a-
• Arabic: وَرَل m (waral)
• Assamese: গুঁই (gũi), গুঁই সাপ (gũi xap)
• Bajau:

  West Coast Bajau: paang

• Belarusian: вара́н m (varán)
• Bengali: গুই সাপ (bn) (gui śap), গুইসাপ (bn) (guiśap), গোসাপ (bn) (gōśap)
• Bhojpuri: गोह (gōh)
• Bidayuh:

  Bau Bidayuh: biowak

• Bikol:

  Central Bikol: guto

• Bulgarian: вара́н (bg) m (varán)
• Burmese: ဖွတ် (my) (hpwat)
• Catalan: varà (ca) m
• Chichewa: gondwa
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 巨蜥 (zh) (jùxī)

• Czech: varan m
• Danish: varan c
• Dutch: varaan (nl) m
• Esperanto: varano
• Estonian: varaan
• Finnish: varaani (fi)
• French: varan (fr) m, goanna (fr) f
• German: Waran (de) m
• Greek: βαράνος m (varános)
• Hanunoo: akdat
• Hebrew: כּוֹחַ (he) m (kóaẖ)
• Hindi: गोह (hi) f (goh), गोधा (hi) f (godhā)
• Hungarian: varánusz (hu)
• Ido: varano (io)
• Indonesian: biawak (id)
• Irish: laghairt mhonatóra f
• Italian: varano (it)
• Japanese: 大蜥蜴 (おおとかげ, ōtokage)
• Kalmyk: мигүл (migül)
• Kapampangan: timbabalak, tarebalak
• Kazakh: келес (keles)
• Korean: 왕도마뱀 (ko) (wangdomabaem)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: بزنمژە (ckb) (bizinmije)

• Latvian: varāns m
• Lithuanian: varanas m
• Luo: ng'ech
• Macedonian: варан m (varan)
• Malay: biawak (ms)
• Malayalam: ഉടുമ്പ് (ml) (uṭumpŭ)
• Melanau:

  Central Melanau: kelibui, alou

• Murut:

  Tagal Murut: andaatan

• Persian: بزمجه (fa) (bozmajje, bozmaje)
• Polish: waran (pl) m
• Portuguese: varano m, lagarto-monitor m, monitor (pt) m
• Punjabi: ਗੋਹ m (goh)
• Romanian: varan m
• Russian: вара́н (ru) m (varán)
• Sanskrit: गोधा (sa) f (godhā)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: варан m

  Latin: varan (sh) m

• Shor: қомдат
• Slovak: varan (sk) m
• Slovene: varan m
• Spanish: varano
• Sundanese: bayawak (su)
• Swahili: kenge (sw)
• Swedish: varan (sv)
• Tagalog: bayawak
• Tamil: உடும்பு (ta) (uṭumpu)
• Tausug: bibang
• Thai: เหี้ย (th) (hîia), กิ้งก่ามอนิเตอร์ (gîng-gàa-mɔɔ-ní-dtəə)
• Turkish: varan (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: ورل (verel)

• Ukrainian: вара́н (uk) m (varán)
• Vietnamese: kì đà
• Wolof: mbag mi
• Yakan: pāhang

See also

• goanna
• Komodo dragon

References

• Zimmern, Heinrich (1915), Akkadische Fremdwörter als Beweis für babylonischen Kultureinfluss (in German), Leipzig: A. Edelmann, page 52