Expert: Maria - 10/17/2009

Question
How do you say small monkey in Latin - is Mimulus Minimums correct

Many thanks
Sue

Answer
Hello,


If you are looking for the literal translation of “small monkey”, here it is:

-“Parva simia” (nominative feminine)

or more rarely:

-“Parvus simius”(nominative masculine).

As for “Mimulus”, it is the  scientific name of some plants like e.g. Dwarf Purple Monkey-flower (Mimulus Nanus) which is a forb/herb  (i.e. a plant that is neither woody nor a grass) with green foliage and red flowers found in Europe, North and South America, Asia, Australia, South Africa.

The Latin term “Mimulus“,  which is the diminutive of the noun “mimus” meaning "mimic actor"/”mime”, seems to have been coined to indicate monkey-flowers because some species have flowers shaped like a monkeys face, others have painted faces resembling a monkey which is just a mimic  animal that imitates people.

To conclude, “Mimulus Minimums” is wrong first because at any rate it should be “Mimulus Minimus”(in the nominative masculine), as  “minimums” is wrong, second because “Mimulus Minimus” would mean “smallest  Monkey-flower”, not “small monkey”.

Best regards,
Maria
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Note that:

-Small = PARVA (nominative feminine of the adjective PARVUS agreed with SIMIA) / PARVUS (nominative masculine agreed with SIMIUS)

-Monkey= SIMIA (feminine noun, 1st.declension) /  SIMIUS (masculine noun, 2nd. Declension)