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A monkey is a simian primate closely related to a human being, but, and this is important, not as closely related to a human being as the higher apes.

There are currently 264 discrete species of monkey on Roundworld. As the Librarian would be the first to tell you, there are only seventeen species of ape. (It is to be hoped that these numbers have not gone down by the time you finish reading this article. [1])

Therefore the Apes represent a smaller and more select family within the animal kingdom (as the Librarian would also be at pains to point out)

The m-word is not one you use anywhere near the Librarian, who has fixed ideas about its use and application, eg to him. Only three people in the history of the Chronicles have escaped the usual painful fate for applying the wrong descrpitive term to the Librarian. This shows that he has a certain discretion in these matters and is prepared to overlook a genuine mistake, especially if it's somebody he likes (Agnes Nitt), or somebody too slow-witted to know better and who has been put up to it by his mates as a practical joke (Carter the baker). But he will get the person sniggering in the background who thinks he's safe and can watch the joke unfold with impunity. As Weaver the thatcher found out, when he found himself being thrown over the Lancre bridge by a mystery assailant later...

Albert appears to get away with calling the Librarian a monkey ("A monkey? In my university?") at first, but the ape later exacts his revenge.

In The Last Continent, one of the wizards accidentally calls the Librarian a monkey and escapes without penalty, leading the wizards to realize just how sick the Librarian actually is.

Anyone else using the m-word out of malice or willful ignorance is dealt with without mercy and shown an elementary biology lesson - ie, can a mere monkey hold somebody upside down by their ankles and bounce their head repeatedly off a hard unyielding floor?