"a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters..."

Quote of the Week:

We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the complete works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.
~ Robert Wilensky (1951- )

INDRI

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 27 April 2012

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INDRI  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):

1. (n.) a large, short-tailed lemur of Madagascar

Useful info for word game players:

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: -S
• Anagrams: (none)
• Longer extensions: (none)
• Wraparounds: CYLindriC, SPindriFT, SPindriFTS, CYLindriCAL, CYLindriCALLY, SEMICYLindriCAL
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: (none)

Epilogue:

The INDRI, like most lemurs, is native to Madagascar and is ARBOREAL, meaning that it spends most of its time in trees. 

This word is one of my favorites because of its unusual and amusing etymology — or at least one theory of its etymology.  The story goes that while working in Madagascar in the late 18th century, the French naturalist Pierre Sonnerat heard his native guides say “indry! indry!” when spotting one of the creatures in the trees.  Sonnerat therefore assumed that was the native name for the animal and recorded it dutifully.  In actuality, the Malagasy word indry simply means “look” or “behold.”  The natives were just saying “look! look!”  Probably as in “look, look, there goes a babakoto”, for babakoto (or babacoote) is the common native name for the indri. 

A few sources dispute this fanciful story, suggesting that the word may instead be a corruption of endrina, a word that the natives of Madagascar apparently did once use for a type of lemur.  There is no proof of the connection between endrina and indri, however, and the mistaken translation theory of this word’s etymology remains in most modern dictionaries.

Recapping this week’s featured words:

TALAPOIN, RHESUS, HANUMAN, and INDRI

Also mentioned:

ARBOREAL, CAPUCHIN, CAPPUCCINO, CESTUS, ENTELLUS, LANGUR, LEMUR, MACACO, and MACAQUE

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HANUMAN

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 25 April 2012

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HANUMAN  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):

1. (n.) a small monkey of southern Asia
2. (n.) in Hinduism, the monkey god and helper of Rama

Useful info for word game players:

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: -S
• Anagrams: (none)
• Longer extensions: (none)
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: ENTELLUS

Current theme:

Monkey business

Epilogue:

Biologically, the HANUMAN is one of a family of slender, long-tailed monkeys known as LANGURS (the word LANGUR derives from a Sanskrit word meaning “having a tail”).  Its name has great significance in several Indian religions: Hanuman is a monkey god described in the ancient Sanskrit epic Ramayana, and he is variously associated with strength, courage, and devotion.

The HANUMAN monkey is also called ENTELLUS, probably after the hero Entellus, who is described in Virgil’s Aeneid (c. 25 BC) as winning a boxing match against a Trojan named Dares.  In most such ancient boxing matches, the participants wore CESTUSES: a CESTUS being a battle glove usually made of leather and sometimes weighted with metal or other weaponry.  Needless to say, these were brutal and bloody contests.  What any of this has to do with monkeys is anyone’s guess, but it is all pretty fascinating nonetheless.

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RHESUS

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 24 April 2012

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RHESUS  (n. pl. -ES)

Definition(s):

1. (n.) a pale brown Asian monkey

Useful info for word game players:

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: (none)
• Anagrams: RHUSES, RUSHES, USHERS
• Longer extensions: rhesusES
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: (none)

Current theme:

Monkeying around with unusual primate names

Epilogue:

Truth be told, it is not known why the French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Audebert gave this monkey the name RHESUS.  Rhesos was the name of a prince of Thrace in ancient Greece, and apparently Audebert liked the sound of it — no better explanation has been offered.  The RHESUS monkey has frequently been the source of biological experimentation, and the “Rhesus factor” or “RH factor” (a type of protein found on red blood cells) is named after it.

The RHESUS is also a type of MACAQUE, a genus of sturdy and mostly short-tailed or tailless Asian monkeys.  The word MACAQUE was borrowed from Portuguese, but it comes from a Bantu language of central Africa where it meant roughly “monkeys.”  The same Bantu word gave English the word MACACO, but this word now usually refers to a type of LEMUR.  A lemur is not a monkey, but rather a small, arboreal, and chiefly nocturnal primate of Madagascar.

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TALAPOIN

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 23 April 2012

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TALAPOIN  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):

1. (n.) a small monkey of central and western Africa
2. (n.) a Buddhist monk or priest

Useful info for word game players:

• Back hooks: -S
• Front hooks: (none)
• Anagrams: (none)
• Longer extensions: (none)
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: (none)

Current theme:
   Unusual primate names


Epilogue:

The name for this small African monkey comes from the Portuguese talapao, a word for a type of Buddhist monk.  The ultimate derivation is probably tala poi (“my lord”), a phrase from the Old Teguan language, the modern form of which is known as Mon and is spoken in Burma and Thailand.  The TALAPOIN monkey was given the moniker because of its supposed resemblance to a Buddhist monk. 

Similarly, the CAPUCHIN monkey is named after its supposed resemblance to the hood-wearing Capuchin order of monks.  The coffee drink known as CAPPUCCINO is named after the same monastic order, probably because the color of the drink somewhat resembles the hue of the monks’ brown cowls.

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"the most powerful drug"

Quote of the Week:

Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.
~ Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

"Passion drives out reason..."

Quote of the Week:

Never act in a Passion. If you do, all is lost. You cannot act for yourself if you are not yourself, and passion drives out reason.... That is why lookers-on see most of the game, because they keep cool.
~ Baltasar Gracián (1601-1658), Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia (1647)

"Kwyjibo on the loose!"

Quote of the Week:

Bart:  Here we go.  Kwyjibo.  [places his tiles]  K-W-Y-J-I-B-O. Twenty-two points, plus triple-word-score, plus fifty points for using all my letters.  Game's over.  I'm outta here. [gets up]
Homer: [grabs Bart with his left hand, holding a banana in his right]  Wait a minute, you little cheater! You're not going anywhere until you tell me what a kwyjibo is.
Bart:  Kwyjibo.  Uh... a big, dumb, balding North American ape.  With no chin.
Marge: And a short temper.
Homer: I'll show you a big, dumb, balding ape!  [leaps for Bart]
Bart:  [making his escape]  Uh oh.  Kwyjibo on the loose!
~ from The Simpsons TV show, "Bart the Genius" episode (1990)