macaco

Meaning

1. (masculine) monkey; ape
2. (masculine) mechanical jack
3. (derogatory,masculine) ape; savage (an uncivilised or unruly person)
4. (derogatory,masculine) monster; freak (a hideous person)
5. (Brazil,ethnic,masculine,slur) coon; porch monkey (derogatory term for a person of Sub-Saharan African ancestry)

Hyphenated as

ma‧ca‧co

Gender

♂️ Masculine

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.
* from Spanish muchacho;
* from Macau + -aco.