grivet

[prettygoodword]

grivet (GRIV-et) - n, a small east-African monkey (Cercopithecus aethiops) with a grayish back, gray tail, and black face framed by long white tufts of hair.



Thanks, Wikimedia!

Native to Ethiopia and South Sudan, and one of the six species (or subspecies, depending on whose classification you believe) of green monkeys, or vervets. Both grivet and vervet are borrowed from French, with unknown etymology before that. Hmmm. (Wait, doesn't that look like they mean "grey one" and "green one," respectively?)

---L.