Abstract
ALL will admit that many words of Greek origin were used by the Romans, and that pithecus was one of them. The evidence adduced, however, does not prove that pithecus was regarded as a Latin word. The pithecium of Plautus is not a Latin diminutive; it is merely a latinisation of an ordinary Greek diminutive. Had a Roman regarded pithecus as Latin, he would not have used the Greek word for “tail” to combine with it: cercopithecus is of course pure Greek. Nevertheless had the Roman lived to our day and turned zoologist, he might under stress of circumstances have combined pithecus with a word of Latin origin. Circumstances, it is true, did not stress; a good Greek word for “south” was available, and a Roman, especially a “polished Roman”, would probably have used it.
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