{"id":23674,"date":"2024-09-27T13:05:21","date_gmt":"2024-09-27T13:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=23674"},"modified":"2024-09-27T13:05:22","modified_gmt":"2024-09-27T13:05:22","slug":"snub-nosed-simians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=23674","title":{"rendered":"Snub Nosed Simians"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The other day I came across the word <strong>scimmia<\/strong> in my Italian lessons and wondered where it comes from. It&#8217;s rather unlike words for monkey in other Romance languages, such as <strong>mono<\/strong> in Spanish, <strong>macaco<\/strong> in Portuguese, <strong>maimu\u021b\u0103<\/strong> in Romanian, and <strong>singe<\/strong> in French.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/46891909@N05\/4310670343\/in\/photolist-7yVj7t-5ex6GL-6PZjYq-NAacFB-Y42n7Y-nbwBqm-6prb5L-oV6Bmx-539TtE-4ow8TQ-HCkqnP-2nXQfCH-asuxcn-asRXfS-dsQMt-2ebGQke-4WetMD-FVegm7-5Agmva-X2LTmU-9sGSbh-879oCh-4vgtY9-2i5KMWs-bP9TCz\" title=\"Scimmie\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/2705\/4310670343_eea2559b99_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"428\" alt=\"Scimmie\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>Scimmia<\/strong> [\u02c8\u0283im.mja] comes from Latin <em>s\u012bmia<\/em> (ape, monkey, imitator), from <em>s\u012bmus<\/em> (snub-nosed, flattened, splayed), from Ancient Greek <em>\u03c3\u1fd1\u03bc\u03cc\u03c2<\/em> [si\u02c8mos] (snub-nosed, flat nosed, steep, uphill, bent in, hollow, concave), the origins of which are uncertain [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/scimmia\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Words from the same roots include <strong>simian<\/strong> (monkey-like, ape-like) in English, <strong>jimio<\/strong> [\u02c8xi.mjo] (ape) in Spanish, <strong>s\u00edmio<\/strong> (ape, monkey, simian) in Portuguese,  <strong>simi<\/strong> (simian) in Catalan, and <strong>singe<\/strong> (monkey, ape, foolish man) in French [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/simia#Latin\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Related words and expressions in Italian include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>scimmiesco<\/strong> = monkey-like, ape-like, simian<\/li>\n<li><strong>scimmione<\/strong> =  gorilla, ape, a clumsy and brutish person<\/li>\n<li><strong>scimmiottare<\/strong> = to mock, make fun of, mimic, ape<\/li>\n<li><strong>scimmiottamento<\/strong> = aping, mimicry<\/li>\n<li><strong>scimmiotto<\/strong> = small or young money, friend, pal [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/scimmia\">source<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Incidentally, the origins of the English word <strong>monkey<\/strong> are uncertain. It may come from <strong>monk<\/strong>, or from Middle Low German <em>Moneke<\/em>, the name of the son of Martin the Ape in <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Reynard_the_Fox\"><em>Reynard the Fox<\/em><\/a>, a collection of medieval Dutch, English, French and German fables. <\/p>\n<p>Or it may be related to the Late Middle French <em>monne<\/em> (monkey), from Italian <em>monna<\/em> (monkey), from Old Spanish <em>mona<\/em> (female monkey, from <em>mamona<\/em>, from <em>maim\u00f3n<\/em> (a type of monkey with a prehensile tail), from Arabic <strong>\u0645\u064e\u064a\u0652\u0645\u064f\u0648\u0646 <\/strong> (maym\u016bn &#8211; baboon, mandrill). <strong>Mono<\/strong> in Spanish comes from the same roots, as does <strong>maimu\u021b\u0103<\/strong> in Romanian [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/monkey#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.japanesepod101.com\/member\/go.php?r=759259&amp;i=b0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/banners\/banner_japanesepod.jpg\" alt=\"The Fastest Way to Learn Japanese Guaranteed with JapanesePod101.com\" width=\"630\" height=\"83\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The other day I came across the word scimmia in my Italian lessons and wondered where it comes from. It&#8217;s rather unlike words for monkey in other Romance languages, such as mono in Spanish, macaco in Portuguese, maimu\u021b\u0103 in Romanian, and singe in French. Scimmia [\u02c8\u0283im.mja] comes from Latin s\u012bmia (ape, monkey, imitator), from s\u012bmus [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,86,94,104,107,111,128,10,15,41,51,64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ancient-greek-","category-arabic","category-catalan","category-english","category-etymology","category-french","category-italian","category-language","category-latin","category-portuguese","category-romanian","category-spanish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23674"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23679,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23674\/revisions\/23679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}