silverback

noun

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?”

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.”

   “"Have you met Professor Dolan, Bishop Blackie?" an Asian child with a beatifically innocent face asked me. "Is he that skinny silverback ape down on the first floor?"”

   “"That's peanuts. I'm talking about real money," replied [Senator] Ted [Kennedy], who in fact had no idea how much the developer would pay, as that detail had yet to be worked out. / "What are your other main reasons?" Liedell asked, persisting with the old silverback.”

   “There's a story I've been told several times of a dinner at London's Balthazar several years ago, at which assembled guests fell silent as Larry Gagosian—by pretty much any estimation the presiding silverback of the art market—visibly choked on his food.”

3. Any of various ferns of the genus Pityrogramma.