macaque

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an Old World monkey of the genus Macaca, native mainly to Asia with one wild species in northwestern Africa

   The macaque used its fingers to inspect a stone for seeds and insects.

Borrowed from French macaque, from Portuguese macaco, 'monkey.' The Portuguese word is generally traced to a Bantu language of Central Africa, though the exact source is uncertain; zoologists later formed the genus name Macaca from the same word family.

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