What does "vervet" mean?

A small African monkey, Chlorocebus pygerythrus, having a long tail, a black face with white cheek tufts and a greenish-brown coat.

Vervet

Common synonyms include: vervet monkey, cercopithecus aethiops pygerythrus, green monkey, green monkey, grivet, grivet.

//ˈvɜːvɪt// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A small African monkey, Chlorocebus pygerythrus, having a long tail, a black face with white cheek tufts and a greenish-brown coat.
2
South African monkey with black face and hands wordnet
3
Any Old World monkey of the genus Chlorocebus.

"For example, vervet monkeys learn to use a certain call in the presence of circling eagles, who prey on the monkeys."

From French vervet (1821, F. Cuvier), further origin is obscure.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.