monkey

• n. 猴子；顽童
• vi. 胡闹；捣蛋
• vt. 嘲弄

词态变化

中文词源

词源不详。可能来自人名昵称，-key,来自-kin,或-quin变体，monna,女人，缩写自madonna,夫人，女士。该词在古法语对应形式为Monequin,小Monna.如全世界最美女人英文名即为Monica Bellucci.

幽默用法，词源不详。更常见sunshower.

英文词源

monkey

monkey: [16] No one is too sure where monkey came from. Spanish has mono ‘monkey’, and Old Italian had monno ‘monkey’, both probably borrowed from Arabic maimūn ‘monkey’, and it could be that an ancestor of these was borrowed into Low German and given the diminutive suffix -ke. This would account for monkey. No related Germanic form has been found to substantiate this, although the name Moneke does occur in Middle Low German.

monkey (n.)

1520s, likely from an unrecorded Middle Low German *moneke or Middle Dutch *monnekijn, a colloquial word for "monkey," originally a diminutive of some Romanic word, compare French monne (16c.); Middle Italian monnicchio, from Old Italian monna; Spanish mona "ape, monkey." In a 1498 Low German version of the popular medieval beast story Roman de Renart ("Reynard the Fox"), Moneke is the name given to the son of Martin the Ape; transmission of the word to English might have been via itinerant entertainers from the German states.

The Old French form of the name is Monequin (recorded as Monnekin in a 14c. version from Hainault), which could be a diminutive of some personal name, or it could be from the general Romanic word, which may be ultimately from Arabic maimun "monkey," literally "auspicious," a euphemistic usage because the sight of apes was held by the Arabs to be unlucky [Klein]. The word would have been influenced in Italian by folk etymology from monna "woman," a contraction of ma donna "my lady."

Monkey has been used affectionately for "child" since c. 1600. As a type of modern popular dance, it is attested from 1964. Monkey business attested from 1883. Monkey suit "fancy uniform" is from 1886. Monkey wrench is attested from 1858; its figurative sense of "something that obstructs operations" is from the notion of one getting jammed in the gears of machinery (compare spanner in the works). To make a monkey of someone is attested from 1900. To have a monkey on one's back "be addicted" is 1930s narcotics slang, though the same phrase in the 1860s meant "to be angry." There is a story in the Sinbad cycle about a tormenting ape-like creature that mounts a man's shoulders and won't get off, which may be the root of the term. In 1890s British slang, to have a monkey up the chimney meant "to have a mortgage on one's house." The three wise monkeys ("see no evil," etc.) are attested from 1926.

monkey (v.)

1859, "to mock, mimic," from monkey (n.). Meaning "play foolish tricks" is from 1881. Related: Monkeyed; monkeying.

双语例句

1. The woolly spider monkey is the largest primate in the Americas.

绒毛蛛猴是美洲最大的灵长类动物。

来自柯林斯例句

2. Come here, you cheeky little monkey!

过来，你这没有教养的小捣蛋鬼！

来自《权威词典》

3. Look! It's a monkey's wedding!

看！出着太阳还下雨！

来自《权威词典》

4. the monkey's prehensile tail

猴子能缠住东西的尾巴

来自《权威词典》

5. He made a monkey of me on the tennis court.

他在网球场上使我大出洋相.

来自《简明英汉词典》