Dictionary

blackback en · NOUN

Etymology

From black + back.

Meanings

1. An adolescent male gorilla or chimpanzee.
   • The author worked with two main study groups of gorilla in that region. Each contained a fully mature male (silverback), who was the obvious leader of the group, and a younger male of around 9 years of age (blackback), who had not yet assumed full adult morphology. 1979, A. H. Harcourt, “Contrasts between Male Relationships in Wild Gorilla Groups,”, in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, volume 5, number 1, page 40:
   • The second-ranking silverback is also a possible sire in the sixth case, although three other lower-ranking blackback males were also not excluded. 2005, B. J. Bradley et al., “Mountain Gorilla Tug-of-War,”, in PNAS, volume 102, number 26, page 9421:
2. (UK) The great black-backed gull.

Forms

Relateds

silverback