Etymology: Origin uncertain. The two main possibilities suggested are that the word is a derivative of monk n.¹ (compare -y suffix⁶), or that it is related to Middle French monne (see below), perhaps via an unattested Middle Low German form *moneke (inferred < Moneke , the name of a character in Reynard the Fox, attested earlier in a French context as Monnekin , Monnequin (c1330)). Both suggestions encounter difficulties (see further below); in particular, attempts to connect the word with Middle French monne and related words fail to account for the fact that the spelling history suggests currency of a pronunciation with /ʊ/ from the early modern period onwards, while the semantic motivation for a derivation < monk n.¹ is not entirely clear.It is tempting to see the single attestation of mancowe n. as an earlier variant of the present word, although it is difficult to relate formally to the assumed etymon or to the attested forms of the English word, and the resemblance may be no more than coincidental. Derivation < monk n.¹ has the virtue of explaining very well the spelling variation shown by the first syllable of the word; the assumption would be that the word showed /ʊ/ in early modern English, and that the spellings in -o- arise from the spelling variation shown by monk n.¹ The frequency of forms of the type -ey , -eye , -eie , ai , -aie is somewhat surprising but not impossible in a word showing suffixation -y suffix⁶, and such a formation in -y suffix⁶ from a common noun would be relatively early but not unparalleled (even outside Scots) in the early 16th cent. The semantic motivation could perhaps be the same as that shown much later by Capuchin monkey n. at Capuchin n. Compounds, although this would depend on the assumption that the word was applied earliest to this variety of (New World) monkey, which seems unlikely from the earliest examples. Alternatively, it could perhaps arise simply from the likening of a monkey to any brown- or black-cowled monk, perhaps with some more general connotations of anticlericalism. Although there are no clear examples of early association between the words monkey and monk , monks were sometimes depicted as apes in both medieval and early modern satirical and anticlerical traditions. The alternative explanation encounters rather more substantial difficulties. The Middle Low German version of Reynard the Fox (1498) has (only once, l. 6161) Moneke as the name of the son of Martin the Ape; early in the 14th cent. the same character is mentioned as Monnekin (also in a textual variant Monnequin ) by Jean de Condé (court poet of Hainaut) in Li Dis d'Entendement (Scheler) 853 (the passage is also printed by Chabaille as a ‘branche’ of the Roman du Renart). As the name does not occur in any other version of Reynard, the English word is very unlikely to be derived from the story, but the proper name could perhaps represent an otherwise unrecorded Middle Low German *moneke or Middle Dutch *monnekijn , a colloquial word for monkey, and this may have been brought to England by showmen from the continent. This could show a diminutive formation (see -kin suffix) < Middle French monne (see below). However, the basis for reconstructing this Middle Low German or Middle Dutch word is very slender. Middle French monne (1545; French mone ) is either < Italian monna , mona (c1547) or its probable etymon Spanish mona (1438 or earlier; later also mono (1494)), probably shortened < maymon (1270) < Arabic maymūn (adjective) blessed (13th cent. in Vocabulista, glossed ‘beatus’), (noun) monkey. The reason for this application of Arabic maymūn is conjectural: it may be a euphemism by antiphrasis (compare the divine injunction in the Qur'an to transgressors ‘be ye apes, despised and rejected’). The reason for the loss of the first syllable of the Arabic word is also unclear. If the assumption of transmission via Middle Low German or Middle Dutch is rejected, other attempts to link the English word with Middle French monne or related words founder on the difficulty of explaining the -k- in the English word, and also the difficulty of the stem vowel remains. Romance diminutive forms include Middle French monin (masculine, c1345), monine (feminine, mid 16th cent.), Old Occitan monina (1470; Occitan monin (masculine), monina (feminine)), Italian monnina (16th cent. in form monnino ) and †monicchio (Florio, 1598). With Spanish forms which exhibit loss of the initial syllable, compare Occitan mouno female ape, Portuguese mona (16th cent.). Spanish mona or Portuguese mona > the scientific Latin specific name for a type of guenon: see mona n. Compare also mone n.⁴ With Spanish forms which do not exhibit loss of the initial syllable, compare post-classical Latin maimo (11th cent.), Catalan maymon (1284), Old French maimon , mainmonnet (c1290 as plural mainmonnes ; 1351 in Middle French as memon ; 15th cent. as mimonet , mimmonet ), Old Occitan maimon (1339), Italian mamone , mammone (13th cent.; mid 15th cent. as maimone ). The association of monkeys with ideas of lechery and sexuality (see senses 1b and 25) is reflected in various other European languages; with sense 25a, compare Italian monina (Aretino), mona (1905), modern Greek μουνί . With sense 25b perhaps compare the 17th-cent. association of the monkey's tail with the penis: see G. Williams Dict. Sexual Lang. & Imagery in Shakespearean & Stuart Lit. (1994) II. 900–2. In sense 24 perhaps suggested by the initial m of mortgage . to suck (also sup) the monkey at Phrases 2 perhaps arises from sense 16, in spite of the relative chronology of the earliest attestations for each. (E. C. Brewer Dict. Phrase & Fable (1895) suggests a Dutch parallel zuiging de monky, but this appears not be attested elsewhere.) For wider association of monkeys with drunkenness in regional French, and in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and German see Französisches Etymol. Wörterbuch s.v. maimūn and J. Corominas Diccionario crítico etimológico castellana e hispánico (1981) at mona.