An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Pavian

by Friedrich Kluge

Pavian, masculine, ‘baboon,’ Modern High German only, formed from Dutch baviaan (High German p for Dutch b, as in pappeln); the latter, like English baboon, is derived from French babouin, ‘baboon’ (Italian babbuino, Middle Latin babuinus). The derivation of these cognates from Middle Latin papio, ‘wild dog,’ is not satisfactory; their origin must be sought for somewhere in the South. Late in the 13th century the term passed into Romance and then into English; in Germany the animal seems to have been shown for the first time at the Imperial Diet at Augsburg in the year 1552 A.D.