The Word “Australopithecus” and Others

Abstract

IT has been stated by several critics that the word “Australopithecus” is a hybrid (Latin-Greek) term. I am indebted to my colleague Mr. T. J. Haarhoff, professor of classics in the University of the Witwatersrand, for the information that pithecus was a recognised naturalised Latin word in Rome. It was used by Cicero's own secretary Tiro and by other accredited writers, and more than a century before Cicero's time Plautus employed the diminutive pithecium. It is, therefore, not surprising that both of these words are to be found in a standard Latin dictionary, such as that of Lewis and Short. The still commoner cercopithecus is found in Pliny, Varro, Juvenal and Martial, to the last-named of whom (Book xiv. Epigram 202) we owe one of the most pleasing examples of the indiscriminate juxtaposition of the two words used by polished Romans for a monkey: