tarzan means A heroic fictional character, raised from a baby to adulthood in the African jungle by apes.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, tarzan ranks #6,684 of 42,747 for Qualifying.
tarzan is pronounced /ˈtɑɹzæn/.
Etymology
Coined by Edgar Rice Burroughs in 1912. A name created by Burroughs for his fiction. In the fictional ape language of the books, "tarzan" means "white-skin"; possibly echoic in its phonetics of various "exotic" names (see Orientalism).
name
- A heroic fictional character, raised from a baby to adulthood in the African jungle by apes.
noun
- A strong wild man; any man showing attributes of Tarzan, as muscularity, agility, etc.e.g.“"My job is to grab him before he slaughters more." "He sounds a bit of a Tarzan." "A wild man right enough is Toowanor, but from his size you'd never imagine he was a killer."” — 1937, Ion Idriess, Over The Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 47:
verb
- To behave in the manner of Tarzan, especially by swinging from ropes, climbing trees, and other feats of athleticism.e.g.“Elmo Lincoln, that mighty man of valor who Tarzaned about, has issued a challenge to Jack Dempsey, and we wish him all the luck in the world.” — 1919 August 16, “Hollywood Hokum”, in Motion Picture News, New York, page 1475, column 2:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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