macaco

Meaning

Noun

1. (masculine) monkey; ape
2. (derogatory, masculine) ape; savage (an uncivilised or unruly person)
3. (derogatory, masculine) monster; freak (a hideous person)
4. (Brazil, ethnic, masculine, offensive, slur) monkey (derogatory term for a black person)

Verb

first-person singular present indicative of macacar

Concepts

monkey

🐒

ape

🐒

primate

macaque

jack

monkeys

booger

marmoset

baboons

apes

Old World monkey

all fours

macaca

macaques

marmosets

bodyboarder

Synonyms

símio

mono

🐒

primatas

incivilizado

hominóideo

hominóideos

catota

macaca

primata

mico

meleca

babuíno

Translations

singe

🐒

mono

scimmia

🐒

Affe

🐒

aap

🐒

mico

🐒

πίθηκος

maymun

🐒

simia

قرد

🐒

apin

simio

🐒

simi

guenon

Pronounced as (IPA)

/maˈka.ku/

Etymology

Unknown. Thought to have been borrowed from a Bantu language. Bantu maka, "cat", comes from -mañga (an old East African Bantu word for the sea-coast, often applied to any strange or foreign product). But it seems unlikely that the Bantu would have used such a word to denote familiar animals like apes and monkeys. However, none of the many Bantu words for apes and monkeys resembles "macaco". Other suggested derivations include:
* from Kongo makaku (“monkeys”)
* from a language of Madagascar (compare macaco, macauco, maucaco (“any of several lemurs”), perhaps related to maky);
* from Kari'na macaca (“simian”), though it may have been loaned into Galibi from a language of African slaves;
* from dialectal French macao (“cat; monkey; long-tailed monkey”), allegedly used in Normandy and Berry.

Sentences

Macaco velho não pula em galho seco .

Old monkey does not jump on dry branch.