vervet monkey
- noun
- /ˈvɜrvɪt ˈmʌŋki/
- South African
:
mono vervet
- It was early morning, and the vervet monkeys had moved out of their yellow-barked acacia sleeping trees to forage on the open plains of the East African savanna.
Examples
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Seropositive vervet monkeys were also found.
Academic text (2013) -
While observing wildlife, I was excited to see a vervet monkey foraging for fruit in the tree branches.
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For the past thirteen years, we and our colleagues have attempted to tackle some of these questions by studying the East African vervet monkey in Kenya's Amboseli National Park.
Academic text (1990) -
Antibodies for HPIV3 were detected in 13 baboons and 6 vervet monkeys in 2 distinct areas in Zambia.
Academic text (2013) -
Baboons and vervet monkeys live side by side with humans in game management areas in Zambia, and this situation often leads to high levels of human-baboon/monkey conflicts.
Academic text (2013) -
Finally, vervet monkeys flee from Masai herdsmen and their cattle, and they also respond to the mooing of cows and the ringing of cowbells with vigilance and flight.
Academic text (1990) -
If you look at vervet and rhesus monkeys and examine the toy preferences that infant vervet monkeys and rhesus monkeys display, they are exactly the same in terms of sex-specificity as human infants.
Academic text (2013) -
At the safari park, the playful vervet monkey stole a sandwich from a visitor's backpack.
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In the early morning, the vervet monkey sat quietly in a sunny spot, grooming its fur.
Synonyms
1
8.3
A medium-sized African monkey with a black face and hands and a grey body that lives on the savanna
A small East African monkey called the vervet with white and greenish fur and white hair beside its face
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable: 'vervet' names a particular kind of monkey and 'monkey' is the hypernym, so 'vervet monkey' simply denotes a monkey of the vervet species. This species-naming pattern (specific descriptor + general class) is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer the meaning.
Etymology
Vervet monkey may come from the old word vervet, linked to 'green', because early visitors thought the monkey's fur had a faint greenish shine. So the name vervet monkey stuck for this small African monkey with a black face.