Road rules3 mins ago
When is a monkey not a monkey?
12 Answers
Answer: When it's an ape! Why is it so difficult to educate the masses to the fact that chimps are NOT monkeys? It really gets my hackles up each time i see a news report featuring a chimp with the tagline 'blah blah.. monkey business', I cringe when I see popular TV presenters promoting such ignorance when our kids are watching. It may not sound important to you but it really bugs the 'you know what' out of me! Am I alone in my dismay or do you think I'm being over sensitive? Be careful, I'm really touchy about this!! :)
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You are being just a tiny bit over twitchy as the word 'monkey' is almost always used as a generic term for chimps (apes) to capuchins (monkeys) and everything in between such as lemurs etc. Near me is 'Monkey World' , and most people know the animals that draw in the crowds are the chimps, so don't get too strung up and if it helps just call everything 'primates' ;-)
I don't think that common usage is justification for promoting ignorance Cetti. How often have you heard it said that "Darwin said that we evolved from monkeys" for example? The fact that an organisation such as "Monkey World " is not only doing nothing to address the problem but actually participating in it is, to me, unforgivable.
I bet you think I'm still being touchy, in fact I'd wager a chimp on it :) (thanks Jenny)
If someone says he's going to America on holiday, very few of us imagine he might just possibly mean Tierra del Fuego or Belize. Each of those is a part of "America", the dual continent, just as the USA is, but effectively everyone in Britain takes the word to mean the last-named country.
Common usage is what language is all about. I'm old enough to remember being quite happy to tell people that I attended a gay party the previous evening. I'd think twice now, since my past usage is not what is now common usage.
English is positively heaving with inaccurate attributions, many in the animal world - koalas aren't bears, for example, and flying-foxes are bats - and we just have to learn to live with them, I'm afraid. Yes, I think you're being over-sensitive.
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