Forms: 7 caimain, 9 kay-, kaiman. [In Sp. and Pg. caiman, F. caïman, app. from Carib. Martini, Galibi (Mainland Carib) Dict. has ‘cayman crocodilus’; Rochefort (c. 1660) Iles Antilles, 225 ‘le crocodile que les insulaires nomment cayeman. Littré cites Carib Acayoúman ‘crocodile,’ from Dict. Fr. Caraïbe of P. Raymond Breton, 1661.
Very positive statements, however, assert the word to be African, from Congo; Pigafetta 1598 (trans. in Yule) says ‘In this river (Zaire or Congo) … mighty great crocodiles, which the country people there call caiman.’ And Cuvier, Règne Animal, Sauri (transl.), IX. 196 says ‘The slaves on their arrival from Africa, at sight of a crocodile, gave it immediately the name of cayman. It would appear from this that it was the negroes who spread the name throughout America.’ But as Bontius 1631 (cited by Yule) says Cayman is the name ‘per totam Indiam’ (i.e., the East Indies), the name appears to be one of those like anaconda and bom, boma, which the Portuguese or Spaniards very early caught up in one part of the world, and naturalized in another.]
A name applied to some large saurians of the crocodile family. a. The genus of these confined to America, and distinguished from the true crocodiles mainly by the shortness and roundness of the muzzle, and the inferior development of the webs between the toes; also called ALLIGATOR. b. esp. The species of this genus found in the tropics of South America, chiefly A. palpebrosus and trigonatus, as distinguished from A. Lucius, the North American species, to which the term alligator is more particularly applied. c. Loosely applied to all large American saurians, some of which are true crocodiles; and sometimes extended even to those of Africa or Asia.
1577. Frampton, Joyfull Newes, II. (1596), 73 b. Caimanes, that are called Lagartos [in New Granada].
1648. Gage, West Ind., xii. (1655), 45. The great Lisarts, or Caimains [on same page, Caymanes].
1668. Phil. Trans., III. 703. The Stone in the Stomach of a Cayman or Crocodile.
1699. Dampier, Voy., II. II. ii. 75. At the Isle Grand Caymanes, there are Crocodiles, but no Alligators. At Pines by Cuba, there are abundance of Crocodiles, but I cannot say there are no Alligators…. Both Kinds are called Caymanes, by the Spaniards.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., IV. 67. The crocodile, properly so called, and the cayman or alligator.
1796. Stedman, Surinam, I. vii. 145. The alligator or cayman (as called by the natives and negroes). Ibid., 146. That [name] which the Indians called them by, viz. the cayman.
1831. Tyerman & Bennet, Voy. & Trav., II. liii. 523. They [native fishermen in Madagascar] frequently have to dispute with a kayman (the alligator) for their property.
1836. Macgillivray, trans. Humboldt’s Trav., xxiii. 324. He cannot bathe on account of the caymans.
1885. R. L. & F. Stevenson, Dynamiter, 159. See, where the caiman lies ready to devour us.
