Aliboron

The genus was named by James Thomson in 1864;^[1] the type species is Aliboron antennatum.

The name Aliboron is that of the donkey in La Fontaine's fable "The thieves and the ass" (Les voleurs et l’âne, I.13); from La Fontaine the word aliboron entered French as a generic name for a donkey (compare Reynard). The name "Maistre Aliboron" for an ass has been suggested to originate from:

• black hellebore, used in medicines, thus perhaps for panaceas, and thus perhaps for (quack) doctors;^[2][3]
• Al-Biruni (973–1048), a Persian philosopher;^[3]
• the Latin phrase magister aliborum, "master of alibis."

In 1910, Roland Dorgelès tied a paintbrush to a donkey's tail and exhibited the resulting artwork at the Société des Artistes Indépendants under the name Boronali (an anagram of "Aliboron").