lemur

See also: Lemur, lémur, lèmur, and lemúr

English

Ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta)

Etymology

From Latin lemurēs (“spirits of the dead”). The name was originally given to the red slender loris (then Lemur tardigradus) in 1754 by Carl Linnaeus. According to Linnaeus, the name was selected because of the nocturnal activity and slow movements of the red slender loris. In 1758, Linnaeus added, among others, the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) to the genus Lemur. All other species, including the red slender loris, were eventually moved to other genera. In time, the word became the colloquial name for all primates endemic to Madagascar.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈliːmə(ɹ)/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːmə(ɹ)
• Homophone: Lima (non-rhotic)

Noun

lemur (plural lemurs)

1. Any strepsirrhine primate of the superfamily Lemuroidea, native only to Madagascar and some surrounding islands.
   • 2018 November 9, “Red alert: New lemurs join zoo conspiracy”, in Oregon Zoo‎^[2], retrieved 5 November 2019:

     "Lemurs are naturally very social," said Mukobi. "Wild lemurs live in big family groups, and different species do really well together. Plus, the new lemur habitat is quite large, so each family group can have their own space when they choose to."

   • 2025 July 5, Mike Carter, “Deep in the island ark”, in FT Weekend, Travel, page 6:

     Tucker-Brown explained how lemurs—like much of the “stranded” flora and fauna of Madagascar—are effectively living fossils. Belonging to a primate group called prosimians, lemurs were evolutionarily superseded by monkeys on mainland Africa 35mn years ago and driven to near-extinction.

2. Any of the genus Lemur, represented by the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta).
3. (obsolete) A loris (Lemur tardigradus, now Loris tardigradus), predating the 10th edition of Systema Naturæ.

Usage notes

The taxonomy is currently disputed, see Taxonomy of lemurs on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Coordinate terms

primate

• (collective noun) conspiracy

Derived terms

terms derived from lemur (noun)

• bamboo lemur (Hapalemur spp.)
• Bemaraha woolly lemur
• black-and-white ruffed lemur
• black lemur
• Cleese's woolly lemur
• dwarf lemur (Cheirogaleus spp.)
• fat-tailed lemur. fat-tailed dwarf lemur
• flying lemur (Cynocephalidae spp.)
• fork-marked lemur (Phaner spp.)
• gentle lemur (Hapalemur spp.)
• giant mouse lemur (Mirza spp.)
• greater bamboo lemur
• Groves' dwarf lemur
• hairy-eared dwarf lemur (Allocebus trichotis)
• koala lemur
• lemuriform
• lemurlike
• lemuroid
• lemur-tail seahorse
• Madame Berthe's mouse lemur
• mouse lemur (Microcebus spp.)
• ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta)
• ruffed lemur (Verecia spp.)
• Sanford's brown lemur, Sanford's lemur
• slow lemur
• sportive lemur (Lepilemuridae spp.)
• subfossil lemur
• true lemur (Eulemur spp.)
• woolly lemur (Avahi spp.)

Related terms

• lemures
• Lemuria

Translations

strepsirrhine primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes, superfamily Lemuroidea

• Afrikaans: lemur
• Arabic: لَيْمُور m (laymūr)
• Armenian: լեմուր (hy) (lemur)
• Asturian: llémur m, lémur m
• Basque: lemur (eu)
• Belarusian: лему́р m (ljemúr)
• Bengali: লেমুর (bn) (lemur)
• Catalan: lèmur (ca) m, maqui (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 狐猴 (zh) (húhóu)

• Czech: lemur (cs) m
• Dutch: lemuur (nl)
• Esperanto: lemuro
• Finnish: maki (fi), makimainen puoliapina
• French: lémur (fr) m, lémurien (fr) m
• Galician: lémur m or f, lémure m
• German: Lemur (de) m, Lemure (de) m
• Greek: λεμούριος (el) m (lemoúrios)
• Hebrew: לֶמוּר m (lemúr)
• Hindi: लीमर m (līmar)
• Hungarian: maki (hu), makimajom (hu)
• Icelandic: lemúr m
• Indonesian: warik (id)
• Interlingua: lemure
• Italian: lemure (it) m
• Japanese: 狐猿 (ja) (きつねざる, kitsunezaru), キツネザル (ja) (kitsunezaru)
• Korean: 여우원숭이 (yeouwonsung'i)
• Lithuanian: lemūras m
• Malagasy: gidro (mg), varika (mg)
• Māori: rīmā
• Norwegian: lemur m
• Occitan: lemur m
• Persian: لمور (fa) (lemur)
• Polish: lemur (pl) m
• Portuguese: lêmure (pt) m
• Romanian: lemur (ro) m, lemurian (ro) m
• Russian: лему́р (ru) m (lemúr)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: лѐмӯр m

  Latin: lèmūr (sh) m

• Spanish: lémur (es) m
• Swedish: lemur (sv)
• Tagalog: lemur
• Thai: ลีเมอร์ (lii-mə̂ə)
• Turkish: maki (tr)
• Ukrainian: лему́р m (lemúr)
• Vietnamese: vượn cáo

References

• lemur on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Lemuriformes on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Category:Lemuriformes on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈlɛmur]

Noun

lemur m anim

1. lemur

Declension

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Derived terms

• lemuří

Further reading

• “lemur”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “lemur”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989

Icelandic

Verb

lemur (weak)

1. second-person singular present indicative of lemja
2. third-person singular present indicative of lemja

Polish

lemur

Etymology

Internationalism; compare English lemur, French lémur, German Lemur, ultimately from Latin lemurēs.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛ.mur/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛmur
• Syllabification: le‧mur

Noun

lemur m animal

1. lemur (any primate of the infraorder Lemuriformes)
2. (Roman mythology) lemures (spirit or ghost of the dead, considered as malignant)

Declension

Declension of lemur

	singular	plural
nominative	lemur	lemury
genitive	lemura	lemurów
dative	lemurowi	lemurom
accusative	lemura	lemury
instrumental	lemurem	lemurami
locative	lemurze	lemurach
vocative	lemurze	lemury

Further reading

• lemur in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• lemur in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• lemury in PWN's encyclopedia

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French lémure.

Noun

lemur m (plural lemuri)

1. lemur

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	lemur	lemurul		lemuri	lemurii
genitive-dative	lemur	lemurului		lemuri	lemurilor
vocative	lemurule			lemurilor

Serbo-Croatian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lěmuːr/
• Hyphenation: le‧mur

Noun

lèmūr m anim (Cyrillic spelling лѐмӯр)

1. lemur

Declension

Declension of lemur

	singular	plural
nominative	lèmūr	lemuri
genitive	lemúra	lemura
dative	lemuru	lemurima
accusative	lemura	lemure
vocative	lemure	lemuri
locative	lemuru	lemurima
instrumental	lemurom	lemurima

Swedish

en lemur (ringsvanslemur (“ring-tailed lemur”))

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin lemures (“spirits”). First attested in 1861.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lɛˈmʉːr/

Noun

lemur c

1. (animal) a lemur [since 1912]
2. (Roman mythology) a lemures [since 1861]

   Synonyms: ande, spöke, gast

Declension

Declension of lemur

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	lemur	lemurs
	definite	lemuren	lemurens
plural	indefinite	lemurer	lemurers
	definite	lemurerna	lemurernas

See also

• maki

References

• lemur in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)

Anagrams

• Lerum

Tagalog

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish lémur or English lemur, from Latin lemurēs (“spirits of the dead”).

Pronunciation

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈlemuɾ/ [ˈlɛː.mʊɾ]
• Rhymes: -emuɾ
• Syllabification: le‧mur

Noun

lemur (Baybayin spelling ᜎᜒᜋᜓᜇ᜔)

1. lemur