monitor lizard

English

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):(file)

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.

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See also

References

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