varika (Malagasy)
Where does "varika" come from?
The Malagasy noun 'varika', which refers to a 'brown lemur' or any 'lemur', is etymologically linked to the Banjarese word 'warik' and the Ma'anyan term 'warik'. Both of these cognates carry the meaning of 'monkey', suggesting a shared linguistic history where the term evolved to describe different primate species across these related languages.
Cognates and doublets
- warik (Banjarese)
- warik (Ma'anyan)
Updated August 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris