Μαϊμού, maimuţă, მაიმუნი...

*Monkey* has no traces in Germanic languages, which all share the same root with English *ape*: German *Affe*, Dutch *aap*, Icelandic *api*, Norwegian *ape*, Swedish *apa*, Danish *abe*, etc. The real difference between a *monkey* and an *ape* is that *monkey* is a second-hand medieval borrowing going back to Old Spanish *mona* 'ape' (cf. Mod. Spanish/ Portuguese *mono*), a truncated form of *mamona*, from an original *maimón*, ultimately from Arabic ميمون [maymūn] 'auspicious' – a euphemism, or call it a 'politically-correct' form. The latter has entered Farsi in a quasi-identical form – ميمون [meymūn] – and, through Turkish *maymun*, spread like fire into Europe's most diverse languages and beyond: Greek *μαϊμού* [maymū], Bulgarian *маймуна* [maymūna], Albanian *majmun*, Macedonian/ Serbian *мајмун* [maymun], Romanian *maimuţă*, Croatian *majmun*, Hungarian *majom* and, finally, Georgian მაიმუნი [maimūni] - all meaning 'monkey' (or, should one rather say, 'ape'?!)