The word 'gorilla' was coined not by zoologists but by Carthaginian sailors 2,500 years ago. Hanno described hairy wild people on an African island whom his interpreters called 'gorillai'. In 1847 the name went to the ape.

500 BC · 1847 · apart: 2347 years

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The event

• Voyage of Hanno the Navigatorc. 500 BC · Carthage. The Carthaginian navigator Hanno led a fleet past the Pillars of Hercules and down the Atlantic coast of West Africa. His account, the Periplus, preserved in Greek translation, is one of the oldest descriptions of tropical Africa.

5th century BC · 19th century

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