English Explanatory Dictionary

Indri

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A mostly Muslim ethnic group of Western Bahr el Ghazal, South Sudan.
name
  1. Their Ubangian language.
noun
  1. One of the largest living lemurs (Indri indri), native to Madagascar.

Pronunciation

/ˈɪndɹi/ En-us-indri.ogg

Word forms

Indri indris

Etymology

Possibly from Malagasy endrina (“the lemur Indri indri”). A common explanation asserts that the word comes from the Malagasy indry (pronounced /ˈiɳɖʐʲ/) meaning “lo!” or “behold!”, or from indry izy (“There he is!”), which guides shouted to the French naturalist Pierre Sonnerat (1748–1814) upon seeing the animal, and which Sonnerat mistook for its name, but it has been suggested that Sonnerat studied indris too closely for this story to be plausible.

Synonyms

babacoote babakoto
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