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PORTUGUESE · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

macaco.

monkey; ape

6 characters3 syllables approx.Português language

Meaning & usage

noun/maˈka.ku/Brazil/mɐˈka.ku/Portugal
  1. monkey; ape

    masculine
  2. ape; savage (an uncivilised or unruly person)

    derogatory · masculine
  3. monster; freak (a hideous person)

    derogatory · masculine
  4. monkey (derogatory term for a black person)

    Brazil · ethnic · masculine · offensive · slur
Where this word comes from

Unknown. Thought to have been borrowed from a Bantu language. Bantu maka, "cat", comes from -mañga (an old East African Bantu word for the sea-coast, often applied to any strange or foreign product). But it seems unlikely that the Bantu would have used such a word to denote familiar animals like apes and monkeys. However, none of the many Bantu words for apes and monkeys resembles "macaco". Other suggested derivations include: * from Kongo makaku (“monkeys”) * from a language of Madagascar (compare macaco, macauco, maucaco (“any of several lemurs”), perhaps related to maky); * from Kari'na macaca (“simian”), though it may have been loaned into Galibi from a language of African slaves; * from dialectal French macao (“cat; monkey; long-tailed monkey”), allegedly used in Normandy and Berry.

noun/maˈka.ku/Brazil/mɐˈka.ku/Portugal
  1. jack (device for raising and supporting a heavy object)

    masculine
  2. a booger (a piece of solid or semi-solid mucus)

    Portugal · informal · masculine
Where this word comes from

Unknown. Thought to have been borrowed from a Bantu language. Bantu maka, "cat", comes from -mañga (an old East African Bantu word for the sea-coast, often applied to any strange or foreign product). But it seems unlikely that the Bantu would have used such a word to denote familiar animals like apes and monkeys. However, none of the many Bantu words for apes and monkeys resembles "macaco". Other suggested derivations include: * from Kongo makaku (“monkeys”) * from a language of Madagascar (compare macaco, macauco, maucaco (“any of several lemurs”), perhaps related to maky); * from Kari'na macaca (“simian”), though it may have been loaned into Galibi from a language of African slaves; * from dialectal French macao (“cat; monkey; long-tailed monkey”), allegedly used in Normandy and Berry.

verb/maˈka.ku/Brazil/mɐˈka.ku/Portugal
  1. first-person singular present indicative of macacar

    first-person · form-of · indicative · present · singular
Where this word comes from

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.