silverbacks

Noun

silverback (plural silverbacks)

1. A mature male gorilla leading a troop, so named from the silver streaking on its back.
   • To be clear, there’s no reason to hate the actual Harambe. After the silverback gorilla was shot and killed at the Cincinnati Zoo in 2016, people used “RIP Harambe” to… comment on the irony of why we mourn animals but are quick to blame humans?2019 December 31, AJ Willingham, “All the trends we loved and hated in the 2010s”, in CNN
2. (broadly, informal) A dominant or powerful older human male.
   • Courageously (given Ranger's status in Mugabe's Zimbabwe, and his status as a silverback in North Atlantic Academe), Kriger dissents from their arguments.2001, Peter Burke, New Perspectives on Historical Writing, page 145
3. Any of various ferns of the genus Pityrogramma.
4. Any member of the species Rhodamnia cinerea of plants of southeastern Asia.