monkey man

monkey man (plural monkey men)

1. (obsolete) A man who owns a monkey or monkeys; an organ grinder who keeps a pet monkey as part of his attraction.
   • 1885 September 23, The Singleton Argus, NSW, page 2, column 3:

     Everybody seemed happy. The goose and marble man, the monte player, purse trickster, monkey man, ginger-pop man, ice cream vendor, and the young man who gave away pound notes for sixteen shillings, and after wearables and so called jewellery at a grand profit to himself, all were happy and contented looking.

   • 1887 April 29, The Terowie Enterprise, SA, page 3, column 2:

     The racing clubs might decide among themselves, and let such be a rule under the South Australian Jockey Club rules, that no wheel of fortune man, "monkey man," jenny, or any such character should be allowed on any course, while such clubs have responsible officers to work the Totalizator machine.

   • 1897 October 3, The Truth, Sydney, page 3, column 7:

     Each organ grinder has a regular beat (this applies also to the hideous Italian monkey man) and he does it with painful regularity to the bitter annoyance and discomfort of storekeepers and pedestrians.

   • 1899 August 22, The Evening Journal, Adelaide, page 3, column 6:

     Then we have a monkey man, with three Simians in his charge - one a loag-tailed, grey-haired, whiskered lass; another a stumpy, almost hairless gentleman, much given to hand-shaking and hugging, and one of the uncouth ourang-outang type.

2. A supposed missing link, having intermediate characteristics of human and non-human primates; any extinct hominin.
   • 1884 September 11, The Hamilton Spectator, Victoria, page 2, column 5:

     We seem no nearer, however, to the discovery of that more important link between the quadrumana and the bimana - the monkey-man, or man-monkey, gifted with a rudimentary hippocampus minor, or toe-bone, and rejoicing in the possession of articulate speech.

   • 1893 October 13, The Express and Telegraph, Adelaide, page 3, column 4:

     Mr. Swift MacNeill is not exactly beautiful. He has a rather prominent upper jaw with large teeth, which when angry he protrudes. Still the hon. member does not bear even a remote resemblance to the monkey-man with his name underneath in Punch (Toby, M.P.'s Diary) of August 23, and one can scarcely wonder at his resenting suoh a caricature violently.

   • 1893 October 13, The Express and Telegraph, Adelaide, page 3, column 4:

     As only three fragments of three skeletons have been unearthed, it is rather a petito principii to call it Pithecanthropus erectus, "the erect monkey man," for monkey it undoubtedly is, though possibly one nearer the form divine than the ourang-outang of the Malayan region.

   • 1900 December 29, The Coolgardie Miner, WA, page 4, column 4:

     Today, however, he is actually pursuing his investigations in search of the man-monkey or monkey man in the fossil bearing beds of that island which it is said was once joined to the mainland of Australia on the south and to Sumatra on the north.

   • 1947 May 31, The Mercury, Hobart, page 1, column 4:

     The Piltdown man (discovered in 1912 in Britain) was a human with ape-type teeth. Broom's "monkey-man" had human teeth.

3. (derogatory) A man with simian characteristics.
   • 1883 March 23, The Mount Alexander Mail, Victoria, page 2, column 5:

     Cr Greenhill interjected that Cr M'Gregor was a "monkey man," whereupon the latter called the attention of the Mayor to his comments[.]

   • 1884 August 9, The Queensland Figaro, Brisbane, page 27, column 3:

     It is unnecessary to tell my readers that Billy Brookes is a born fool. Even Jack Annear is on a higher grade of intellectuality than is Billy. But even this poor monkey-man has never given before such remarkable proofs of his idiocy as he gave on Wednesday, when speaking in the Assembly on the Immigration question.

   • 1896 August 25, The Sydney Stock and Station Journal, NSW, page 1, column 3:

     Then the old man told his daughter that as soon as the leaves came out on the peach tree in the garden, she'd have to marry the monkey man.

   • 1944 July 27, The Call and Bailey's Weekly, Perth, WA, page 2, column 3:

     Tremwell's cheeks flushed. Dam this little monkey-man! Who did he think he was to try to take a rise out of the police?

   • 1980 April 25, The Canberra Times, ACT, page 6, column 4:

     A photograph of the first monkey-man ever to be studied scientifically in China - a creature born of a human mother but who walked on four feet, could not talk and was covered in brown fur - appeared yesterday in the Shangai Daily Wenhui Bao.

4. A folklore creature part monkey, part human.
   • 1981 July 22, The Australian Women's Weekly, page 134, column 1:

     Monkey, a Japanese-made series, features a youthful Buddhist priest, a monkey-man, a smallish gentleman who fell into the belly of a pig, an artistic type who lived under water, and a dragon-turned-horse.

5. (cryptozoology) A cryptid part monkey, part human.

   Coordinate terms: bigfoot, sasquatch, menk

   • 2003, Henry Billings, On the Edge: Teacher's Guide, page 37:

     April 5, 2001, the Monkey Man attacks Anil Gopal.

   • 2013, Max Brallier, Cryptids Island:

     Word is, he's on his way to Singapore in search of the Bukit Timah Monkey Man.

   • 2013, Elizabeth Chatterjee, Delhi: Mostly Harmless:

     The most famous contemporary outbreak of Delhi heat hysteria was the Monkey Man panic of April and May 2001.