Dictionary:

bongo¹

  (bŏng'gō, bông'-)

A large, forest-dwelling antelope (Boocercus eurycerus) of central Africa, having a reddish-brown coat with white stripes and spirally twisted horns.

[Probably of Bantu origin; akin to Lingala mongu, antelope.]

One of a pair of connected tuned drums that are played by beating with the hands.

[American Spanish bongó, probably of West African origin.]

A visual interface builder for Java originally from Marimba and later released into the public domain. Bongo output featured a variety of ready-to-use controls, known as "interface widgets."

You play with this bongo a little differently than with the familiar bongo drums. In fact, it's hard to play with this bongo at all, since it weighs a good six hundred pounds. And it's hard to see, at least in its native habitat. Boldly striped white on red, the bongo blends almost invisibly into the dappled sunshine of the equatorial forests of Africa. It is an antelope, husky and hump-backed. Aided by horns that curve backward, the bongo is strong enough to plow through the dense forest with clearance as low as two and a half feet, or to jump six feet from a standing start. It finds forage and safety in bushes, brambles, and vines. It is a vegetarian, munching new plant growth and saplings as well as bamboo leaves and rotten logs.

Outside its homeland, there are about two hundred bongos in zoos around the world, and many have been bred in captivity. But it remains relatively rare and elusive. Until the 1940s, only the zoos in New York City and Rome had bongos in captivity; even by 1970 only a dozen had been exhibited. As early as 1861, however, its name bongo appeared in English, in a book on equatorial Africa. The bongo drum that makes music, a term from American Spanish, is a totally different word and a relative latecomer; it did not immigrate into English until 1920.

In Africa, bongo antelopes live in forests from Sierra Leone on the west coast to Kenya on the east, though they are not easy to find even there. The name bongo is from one or more of the Bantu languages spoken in that area. Kélé, a Niger-Congo language spoken by about 100,000 people in Gabon on the west coast, is a likely candidate. Nothing else from Kélé has made its way into English.

A pair of small African-Cuban single-headed drums with conical or cylindrical hardwood shells. Created in Cuba c 1900, they are played in Latin American dance bands, rumba bands and Western rhythm bands. Composers who have used bongos in their scores include Varèse, Orff and Boulez.

(click to enlarge)
Bongo (Boocercus euryceros). (credit: Tom McHugh/Photo Researchers)

Large, brightly coloured antelope (Boocercus, or Taurotragus, eurycerus) found in dense forests of central Africa. Shy, swift, and elusive, the bongo lives in small groups or in pairs. It stands about 51 in. (1.3 m) at the shoulder and has an erect mane running the length of the back. Both sexes bear heavy, spirally twisted horns. The male is reddish brown to dark mahogany with black underparts, black-and-white legs, white head markings, and narrow, vertical white stripes on the body. The female is similarly marked but usually a brighter reddish brown.

For more information on bongo, visit Britannica.com.

The antelope Boocercus eurycerus.

Bongo may refer to:

• Bongo (antelope), a species of forest antelope from Africa
• Bongo drum, a percussion instrument
• Um Bongo, a British fruit drink marketed at children
• A generic term for truck in Asia including:
  • Mazda Bongo, a van made by Mazda Motor Corp. of Japan
  • Kia Motors Bongo car series, including the Kia Bongo Frontier
• Bongo Comics, a comic book publishing company
• The Bongos, a pop music band most active in the 1980's
• Bongo (clothing brand), a young women's clothing brand
• Bongo (animation), a plug-in for the Rhinoceros 3D modeling program
• Bongo (software), an open source mail and calendar project
• Bongo (programming), a GUI development tool
• Bongos (linguistics), a Papuan dialect

In places:

• Bengal in one of the Bengali names
• Bongo Town is slang name for Dar es Salaam

Bongo is the name of:

• Omar Bongo, president of Gabon
• Bongo, a fictional character in the short story Little Bear Bongo and the Disney film Fun and Fancy Free
• Bongo, a fictional character in the comic strip series Life in Hell
• Bongo, an obese fictional character in 3D Movie Maker.
• Kuririn, named Bongo in one dub of Dragon Ball

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Dansk (Danish)
1.
n. - bongotromme

2.
n. - bongo

Nederlands (Dutch)
bongo (trom), Afrikaanse antilope

Français (French)
1.
n. - (Mus) bongo

2.
n. - (Zool) antilope (des forêts d'Afrique du Sud)

Deutsch (German)
1.
n. - Bongo (Handtrommeln)

2.
n. - (zo.) Afrikanische Waldantilope

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - είδος μεγαλόσωμης αντιλόπης, (μουσ.) μπόνγκο, είδος μικρού τύμπανου

Italiano (Italian)
tamburello, specie di antilope

Português (Portuguese)
n. - tipo de tambor (m) tocado com as mãos

Русский (Russian)
африканский барабан

Español (Spanish)
1.
n. - bongó

2.
n. - antílope africano

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - bongotrumma

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
1. 非洲产大羚羊

2. 一种用手指敲的小鼓

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
1.
n. - 非洲產大羚羊

2.
n. - 一種用手指敲的小鼓

한국어 (Korean)
1.
n. - 봉고 영양

2.
n. - 봉고(작은 북)

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - ボンゴ

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) طبل موسيقى‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮בונגו (תוף)‬
n. - ‮איילה גדולה שוכנת-יער באפריקה המרכזית‬

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