# What would be Latin for "The story loving ape"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 27, 2018, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-latin-for-the-story-loving-ape/818682 "2018-07-27T14:49:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-latin-for-the-story-loving-ape/818682/1 "2018-07-27T14:49:12Z")
_Pan Narrans_, the story telling ape, is one of my favourite alternative binomials for Homo Sapiens. But I think “story loving” would be even more apt, at least in describing the phenomenon of Homo Netflixius. I don’t speak the lingo though, beyond a handful of memorized phrases, so what would be the correctest binomal for “The story loving ape”? ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-latin-for-the-story-loving-ape/818682/2 "2018-07-27T15:02:09Z")
amator fabularum (?) ape = simius, simia ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-latin-for-the-story-loving-ape/818682/3 "2018-07-27T15:58:50Z")
The storytelling ape (one word) would be _simius fabulator_. (You could also do _simius fabulans_ if you want a parallel construction; the former is more “the storyteller ape” and the latter “the ape telling stories”). Story-loving (hyphen) would be _simius amator fabularum_ or _simius amans fabulas_ You could perhaps make up a word meaning “story-loving”; _simius amafabulas_ or something, but I like that less. Both of these are the masculine form. _Simia_ is the feminine. _Pan_ is neo-Latin; in Latin, it would be the god Pan, whom you presumably don’t mean. Some cautions: “simius” is often used as a derogatory term for a human that merely imitates, and “fabulare” also just means to talk, so without context it doesn’t necessarily clearly mean what you want it to mean. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-latin-for-the-story-loving-ape/818682/4 "2018-07-27T17:01:58Z")
_Pan_ might be modern Latin, but that’s fine, because we’re using it in a modern Latin context. And you’d want to keep that to put us in the same genus as chimps, where (from an unbiased perspective) we belong. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-latin-for-the-story-loving-ape/818682/5 "2018-07-27T18:35:18Z")
Yeah, I know Pan is “ape” due to the binomen for chimps, so that’s what I’d use. And I’d love to use a single word for story-loving without making one up. Is there a good word for audience member that could work? I suppose spectator could work in a pinch, but it feels too broad. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-latin-for-the-story-loving-ape/818682/6 "2018-07-27T19:04:59Z")
Audiens means “listening,” and the word for “audience” derives from it. You could also use “auditor,” with the same distinction between the agent noun and the present participle. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-latin-for-the-story-loving-ape/818682/7 "2018-07-27T19:47:24Z")
Could you use “fabulaphile” perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-latin-for-the-story-loving-ape/818682/8 "2018-07-27T19:53:49Z")
Incidentally, looking that up led me to this quote, translated from the French Wikipedia article: > [@](#): > > Fabophilie > > The fabophilie (or favophilie ) is an activity which consists in collecting the baked beans of the kings. This, it turns out, is not the metaphor I first assumed, but an actual collection of beans. [(The kind you bake into a Mardi Gras cake.)](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabophilie) ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-latin-for-the-story-loving-ape/818682/9 "2018-07-27T20:11:01Z")
-phile is an ending derived from Greek. You can use it, but it depends on how Latin is the Latin you are going for. In genus and species names, it seems like pretty much anything goes. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-latin-for-the-story-loving-ape/818682/10 "2018-07-27T21:08:25Z")
_Homo narrans_ gets quite a few Google hits. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-latin-for-the-story-loving-ape/818682/11 "2018-07-27T21:15:09Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > … > Some cautions: “simius” is often used as a derogatory term for a human that merely imitates,… Interesting. Some time ago a book on apes and ape lore in medieval thought made something of a splash (not sure why) across disciplines in medieval history academic circles. I might have flipped through it, and no doubt this was/is in here. Are you familiar with the work? (Too lazy now for cite…) ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-latin-for-the-story-loving-ape/818682/12 "2018-07-27T22:03:08Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Interesting. Some time ago a book on apes and ape lore in medieval thought made something of a splash (not sure why) across disciplines in medieval history academic circles. I might have flipped through it, and no doubt this was/is in here. > > Are you familiar with the work? (Too lazy now for cite…) Apes and Ape Lore in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Janson, H. W. (Studies of the Warburg Institute 20. The Warburg Institute, London, 1952.) [For $515, out of print](https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/apes-ape-lore/), it’s yours. [Google books has it](https://books.google.com/books/about/Apes_and_Ape_Lore.html?id=jS48AAAAMAAJ), although as usual its not clear how much is accessible. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-latin-for-the-story-loving-ape/818682/13 "2018-07-28T16:33:40Z")
Huh. I am not familiar with this one. Sounds interesting; I’ll ask the Warburg Institute if they have any copies lying around (I bet they do). ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-latin-for-the-story-loving-ape/818682/14 "2018-07-28T17:22:07Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > Huh. I am not familiar with this one. Sounds interesting; I’ll ask the Warburg Institute if they have any copies lying around (I bet they do). Are you serious (or remarking on how far a library is)? Your work/interests bring you there? It never occurred to me that it may be used (which I still doubt) by “the public,” as are the regs of research facilities of The Morgan Library here. Let alone the manuscripts and incunabula. I have wonderful memories of paging through a humongous gold-leaf 13th century Gradual there. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-latin-for-the-story-loving-ape/818682/15 "2018-07-28T19:30:26Z")
I’m serious, though on a bit of a glacial time scale. Next time I happen to be in town. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-latin-for-the-story-loving-ape/818682/16 "2018-07-28T19:42:36Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > Audiens means “listening,” and the word for “audience” derives from it. You could also use “auditor,” with the same distinction between the agent noun and the present participle. I like the sound of it, but Wiktionary lists “pupil, disciple” as one of the meanings, which is contrary to the more passive listener I’m aiming at. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-latin-for-the-story-loving-ape/818682/17 "2018-07-28T19:44:46Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Could you use “fabulaphile” perhaps? I’m not against mixing Latin and Greek, since that’s not that uncommon in scientific names. But what would a lover of stories be entirely in Greek? Anything to avoid it being mistaken as a love of beans. 😃