Grease monkey

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For the Mozilla Firefox plugin see Greasemonkey.For the comic,see Grease Monkey (comics).

Grease monkey is a slang term used to describe a mechanic, generally an automobile mechanic, and dates back to at least 1928. The term may be considered insulting.

[edit] Etymology

The term may have originated during the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain when children were used to grease the large rotating axels which were used to transfer power from one centralized steam engine to all of the machines on the factory floor. These children, covered in grease and crawling in the tight spaces in the ceilings, were equated with monkeys.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

• "Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, Volume 1, A-G" by J.E. Lighter, Random House, New York, 1994.
• Dictionary.com entries
• MSN Encarta definition, which lists term as insulting.