OT: Meaning of "monkey"

[Grant Edwards]

On 2010-03-26, Luis M  Gonz?lez <luismgz at gmail.com> wrote:
> Webmonkey, Greasemonkey, monkey-patching, Tracemonkey, J?germonkey,
> Spidermonkey, Mono (monkey in spanish), codemonkey, etc, etc, etc...
>
> Monkeys everywhere.
> Sorry for the off topic question, but what does "monkey" mean in a
> nerdy-geek context??

In colloquial English, "<something>-monkey" is a slang term for a
person who does a particular job for a living.  For example "grease
monkey" is a slang term for an auto mechanic.  A "code monkey" is
somebody who writes code for a living.

It can be slightly derogitory in some situations since it implies that
the task is mechanical and repetitive and doesn't require a lot of
creative thinking.

However, it can be used among peers in an affectionate way.  One may
refer to one's peer as "code monkey" without offense, but a manager
could not refer to one of his employees as a "code monkey" without
risking it being seen as an insult.

Many people are accustomed to speaking anthopomorphically about
computers and programs, so when somebody writes a program that does
"foo", the name "foo monkey" seems natural for that program.

-- 
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! I don't know WHY I
                                  at               said that ... I think it
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