noun
gorilla
Rare term for gorilla; in modern Japanese, ゴリラ is overwhelmingly more common. This kanji form may appear in older or literary contexts.
古い文献では、ゴリラのことを「大猩々」と記していることがある。
In old documents, gorillas are sometimes written as 大猩々.
Rare kanji spelling for gorilla; the second character is a variant of 猩.
Rare kanji spelling for gorilla.
The standard modern word for gorilla, used in almost all contexts. 大猩々 is a rare, literary kanji form.
The kanji 猩 refers to orangutan or large ape; 大猩々 literally means 'large orangutan/ape'. The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but it is a kanji-based term for gorilla, now largely replaced by the loanword ゴリラ.