taipan

IPA/ˈtaɪpæn/
IPA/ˈtaɪpæn/

taipan — noun

1. a person from a foreign country, especially Europe or the United States in the 1

1.名詞B2
釋義

a person from a foreign country, especially Europe or the United States in the 1800s or early 1900s, who owned or managed a large trading company in China or Hong Kong

例句

Harper's great-grandfather worked as a taipan for a British tea company in Canton.

worked as a taipan for [company]

The old photographs showed taipans in white suits meeting with Chinese traders in Hong Kong.

同義詞
  • magnate

    a powerful business owner, but does not specify a foreigner in China

  • tycoon

    a rich and successful businessperson; more general and modern than taipan

用法筆記

Frequently found in historical writing about 19th- and early 20th-century trade in East Asia. The word comes from Cantonese and is still sometimes used in modern business journalism to describe Western executives based in Hong Kong.

常見錯誤

❌The taipan destroyed the village.
✅The typhoon destroyed the village.
💡taipan and typhoon sound similar but mean completely different things.

2. a large snake from Australia whose poison is extremely strong and can kill a per

2.名詞B2
釋義

a large snake from Australia whose poison is extremely strong and can kill a person very quickly

例句

A taipan can inject enough poison in one bite to kill fifty adult men.

taipan + poison / bite / kill collocation

Farmers in northern Australia are told to watch carefully for taipans near their homes.

用法筆記

Avoid confusing the snake sense with the business sense — they are completely unrelated in meaning. The snake sense arose because the snake was seen as the 'boss' of other snakes.

常見錯誤

❌A taipan ran the shipping company in Hong Kong.' (when describing a snake)
✅The coastal taipan lives in northern Australia.
💡the two meanings of taipan (businessman vs. snake) are unrelated and context determines which one is meant.