# Did the Peasants Really Throw Their Feces at Marie Antoinette?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-peasants-really-throw-their-feces-at-marie-antoinette/275799>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 20, 2004, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-peasants-really-throw-their-feces-at-marie-antoinette/275799 "2004-11-20T04:30:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Apollon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47774/32.png) [@Apollon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollon)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-peasants-really-throw-their-feces-at-marie-antoinette/275799/21 "2015-02-19T21:05:39Z")

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> [@clairobscur](#):
>
> You, English speakers, decided that, rather. The distinction between apes and monkeys isn’t universal, but an artifact of the English language.

True for German: There’s only “Affe”, and it includes both monkeys and apes.  
Not true for Greek: There are separate words for monkey (μαϊμού - maimou) and ape (πίθηκος - pithekos).  
True for Italian: There’s only “schimmia”, including monkeys and apes.

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