monkey

The story

1. Middle Dutch · derived frommannekin
2. Arabic · derived fromمَيْمُون“baboon”
3. Old Spanish · derived frommona“female monkey”
4. Italian · derived frommonna“monkey”
5. Middle French · derived frommonne
6. Middle Low German · derived from*moneke
7. Middle Low German · borrowed fromMoneke
8. English todaymonkey

Uncertain: * May be derived from monk + -ey (diminutive suffix), * or borrowed from Middle Low German Moneke, the name of the son of Martin the Ape in Reynard the Fox (which may represent an unattested colloquial Middle Low German *moneke, *moneken), itself of uncertain origin: ** Possibly derived from a Romance term represented by Late Middle French monne (whence Modern French mone (“monkey”)) or earlier Old French monnekin (“monkey”), originally Monnekin, the name of a monkey in Li Dis d'Entendement. Compare also Old French and Middle French monin (“monkey”). *** The French terms may have been borrowed from Italian monna (“monkey”), from Old Spanish mona (“female monkey”), itself a shortening of mamona, variant of maimón, from Arabic مَيْمُون (maymūn, “baboon”)). *** However, Old French monnekin may alternatively be unrelated to the other terms, instead being a borrowing of Early Middle Dutch mannekin (a diminutive of man, literally “little human”), and if so monkey is a doublet of mannequin; see modern Dutch manneken.