Intertextual travels of the abada

The Encyclopedie article ABADA, signed by Diderot, is part of a complex intertextual history from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Centuries. This Malaysian term for an Asian rhinoceros was first described as such by travellers, before Dapper’s collection (1668) introduced confusion by mixing up facts about Africa and Asia and making the abada a separate creature from the rhinoceros. French lexicographers, using this source from 1694 onwards and copying each other, perpetuated this understanding, which Diderot himself, despite a certain scepticism, helped to propagate. This article traces the main story of this journey of the word ‘abada’, a typical example of many exotic zoological names which, borrowed from travellers, entered French dictionaries very quickly and remained there often for a very long time despite uncertainty as to their definition.