different between monkey vs raccoon

English

Etymology

Uncertain. May be either derived from Middle English monk, or borrowed from Middle Low German Moneke, name of the son of Martin the Ape in Reynard the Fox (which may represent an unattested colloquial *moneke, which in turn is possibly a diminutive from Middle French monne, from Old Spanish mona, shortening of mamona, variant of maimón, from Arabic ????????? (maym?n, “baboon”)). Compare Old French Monequin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m??ki/
• enPR: m?ng?ki
• Rhymes: -??ki

Noun

monkey (plural monkeys)

1. Any member of the clade Simiiformes not also of the clade Hominoidea containing humans and apes, from which they are usually, but not universally, distinguished by smaller size, a tail, and cheek pouches.

   He had been visiting an area zoo when a monkey swung from its tree perch, swiped his glasses and hurled them into a hippo hole.

2. (informal) Any nonhuman simian primate, including apes.

3. (informal) A mischievous child.
   • 1909, Algernon Blackwood, You May Telephone From Here

     "Yes. He gets to Paris at seven in the morning. He promised to telephone the first thing."
     "You expensive little monkey!"
     "Why?"
     "It's ten shillings for three minutes, or something like that, and you have to go to the G.P.O. or the Mansion House or some such place, I believe."

4. A dance move popular in the 1960s.
5. (Britain, slang) Five hundred pounds sterling; (US, dated) five hundred dollars.
6. (slang) A person or the role of the person on the sidecar platform of a motorcycle involved in sidecar racing.
7. (slang) A person with minimal intelligence and/or an unattractive appearance
8. (blackjack) A face card.
9. (slang) A menial employee who does a repetitive job, as in code monkey, grease monkey, phone monkey, powder monkey.
10. The weight or hammer of a pile driver; a heavy mass of iron, which, being raised high, falls on the head of the pile, and drives it into the earth; the falling weight of a drop hammer used in forging.
11. (historical) A small trading vessel of the sixteenth century.
12. (slang) A drug habit; an addiction; a compulsion.
    • 1938, Alfred R. Lindesmith, "Argot of the Underworld Drug Addict", Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Vol. 29, Issue 2 (July-August):

      Monkey: a habit, as in "I have a monkey on my back." Usually used when one is sick from lack of drugs.

    • 1949, Nelson Algren, The Man with The Golden Arm:

      "Man, I wasn't hooked, I was crucified. The monkey got so big he was carryin' me. […] When I hear a junkie tell me he wants to kick the habit but he just can't I know he lies even if he don't know he does. He wants to carry the monkey, he's punishin' hisself for somethin' 'n don't even know it. […] Then I got forty grains 'n went up to the room 'n went from monkey to nothin' in twenny-eight days 'n that's nine-ten years ago 'n the monkey's dead."
      "The monkey's never dead, Fixer," Frankie told him knowingly.

    • 1975, Saul Bellow, Humboldt's Gift [Avon ed., 1976, p. 431]:

      I thought I would like to learn about the dope scene anyway, and the boy must have some character, you know, if he got the monkey off his back (as they used to say in our time) without outside help.

13. A fluid consisting of hydrochloric acid and zinc, used in the process of soldering.
14. (slang) A person's temper, said to be "up" when they are angry.
    • 1864, Eneas Sweetland Dallas, Once a Week (volume 11, page 267)

      I was out rather late one night, when the foreman of my department, who owed me a grudge, abused me like a dog, and told me I might consider myself dismissed, and that I should be paid my wages in the morning. I don't know how I kept my hands off him, for my monkey was up; […]

    • 2019, John Hughes-Wilson, 1918 - Defeat into Victory: A Tommy Gunn Adventure (page 98)

      Reminded me of running up that hill by the Marne – or was it the Morin? – in 1914 when Kearey had got his face ripped open by a bullet and Hedley had got his monkey up [Lost his temper, Ed.] over the Huns killing 8 of my platoon.

15. (slang, derogatory, ethnic slur, offensive) A black person.

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Chukchi: ????? (ma?ky)
• ? Coeur d'Alene: moonki
• ? Irish: moncaí
• ? Navajo: mágí
• ? Scottish Gaelic: muncaidh
• ? Tumbuka: munkhwele
• ? Welsh: mwnci

Translations

Verb

monkey (third-person singular simple present monkeys, present participle monkeying, simple past and past participle monkeyed or monkied)

1. (intransitive, informal) To meddle; to mess (with).
   • 1920, Peter B. Kyne, The Understanding Heart, Chapter XII

     “As an inventor,” Bob Mason suggested, “you're a howling success at shooting craps! […] Why monkey with weak imitations when you can come close to the original?”

   Synonyms: interfere, fiddle

2. (transitive) To mimic; to ape.
   • 2011, Elizabeth Mosier, The Playgroup (page 83)

     He winked at Liza, who monkeyed him, holding her own eye shut.

Derived terms

• monkey around
• monkey up
• spank the monkey

Translations

See also

• ape
• primate

Anagrams

• My?ken

English

Alternative forms

• racoon [from 17th c.]
• rarowcun [17th c.]
• r'coon (colloquial contraction)

Etymology

From arocoun (1608), from Powhatan ärähkun, from ärähkun?m (“he scratches with his hands”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /???ku?n/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?æ?kun/, /???kun/
• Rhymes: -u?n

Noun

raccoon (plural raccoons)

1. A nocturnal omnivore native to North America, typically with a mixture of gray, brown, and black fur, a mask-like marking around the eyes and a striped tail; Procyon lotor.
   • 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, p. 64:

     Before a fire upon a seat like a bedsted, he sat covered with a great robe, made of Rarowcun skinnes, and all the tayles hanging by.

   • 1634, William Wood, New Englands Prospect:

     The Rackoone is a deepe furred beast, not much unlike a Badger, having a tayle like a Fox, as good meate as a Lambe; there is one of them in the Tower.

   • 2010, Charlie Brooker, "Screen Burn", The Guardian, 3 Apr 2010:

     Thus we're presented with […] a man who has the head of his penis bitten off by a raccoon, then bleeds to death in a forest.

2. Any mammal of the genus Procyon.
3. Any mammal of the subfamily Procyoninae, a procyonine.
4. Any mammal of the family Procyonidae, a procyonid.

Synonyms

• (Procyon lotor): coon (colloquial), common raccoon, North American raccoon, northern raccoon, trash panda

Derived terms

• coon
• coon dog
• coonhound
• Cozumel raccoon (Procyon pygmaeus)
• crab-eating raccoon (Procyon cancrivorus)
• in a raccoon's age / in a coon's age
• pygmy raccoon (Procyon pygmaeus)
• raccoon butterfly (Chaetodon fasciatus)
• raccoon butterflyfish, (Chaetodon lunula)
• raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides)
• raccoon eyes

Translations

Anagrams

• carcoon