Momotus 
Blue-headed Sawbill {Momotus c&ritleiceps). 
so far north as the Mexican border of the United States. 
Also Momota, Baryphonus, and Prionites. See motmot. 
Momus (mo'mus), n. [NL., < Gr. Moi/^of, a per- 
sonification of pupof, blame, ridicule.] 1. In 
classical myth., a son of Night, the god of rail- 
lery and censure. He is said to have complained that 
the man made by Vulcan had not a window in his breast to 
let his thoughts be seen. 
2. In ornith., a genus of humming-birds, of the 
family Trochilidce, the type of which is M. ida- 
lice of Brazil. Mulsant and Verreaux, 1866 A 
disciple or a son (or daughter) of Momus, a facetious 
or funny person ; a wag ; a clown in a circus. 
"I do not think that Wickam is a person of very cheer- 
ful spirits, or what one would call a " " A daughter qf 
Momus," Miss Tox softly suggested. 
Dickens, Dombey and Son, viii. 
mon 1 !, n. An obsolete form of moan 1 . 
mon 2 (mon), . A dialectal (especially Scotch) 
form of man. See man, and compare mun*. 
mon s t, ". i. Same as moun, 
mon 4 (mon), n. [Jap.] A per- 
sonal crest ; badge, or cogni- 
zance used in Japan and intro- 
duced into decoration of all 
sorts. For examples, see kiku- 
mon and kirimon. 
mon-. See mono-. 
mona (mo'na), n. [NL., < Sp. 
Pg. It. mona, a female monkey : 
see monkey.] An African mon- 
key, Cercopithecus mona, -of highly variegated 
coloration and docile disposition, often kept in 
captivity. See cut under Cercopithecus. 
monacal!, a. An obsolete spelling of monachal. 
monacanfhid (mon-a-kan'thid), a. [< Gr. pova- 
KavBof, with one spine (see monacanthous) + 
-id 2 .] Having uniserial adambulacral spines, 
as a starfish: distinguished from diplacanthid 
and polyacanthid. 
Monacanthinae (mon"a-kan-thi'ne), n. pi. 
[NL., < Monacanthus + -ince.] A subfamily of 
balistoid fishes, typified by the genus Monacan- 
thus. They have the anterior dorsal fin reduced to a sin- 
gle spine upon the head (whence the name), and have 
from 18 to 21 vertebra (7 abdominal and 11 to 14 caudal). 
The subfamily includes a number of tropical and sub- 
tropical marine fishes, some of which are known as lea- 
ther-jackets, on account of their villous coriaceous integu- 
ments. 
monacanthine (mon-a-kan'thin), a. and n. I. 
a. Of or pertaining to the Monacanthince. 
II. n. A fish of the subfamily Monacanthince. 
monacanthous (mon-a-kan'thus), a. [< Gr. 
povanavSof, with one spine or prickle, < /5vof , sin- 
gle, + axavSa, a spine or prickle : see acantha.] 
Having but one spine ; monacanthine. 
Monacanthus (mon-a-kan'thus), n. [NL. : 
see monacanthous.] The typical genus of Mona- 
canthince, having a spine for a first dorsal fin. 
Cuvier,_ 1817. They are numerous in warm seas ; M. oc- 
cidentaWs is West Indian, and is occasionally found on the 
southern coast of the United States. 
Monacha (mon'a-kii), n. [NL., < Gr. fiovax<^, 
single, solitary, { /ttivoc;, single: see monk.] 1. 
A genus of mollusks. 2. In ornith., same as 
Monasa. P. L. Sclater, 1882. 
Monasa of Vieillot I have ventured to correct into Mona- 
cha,. Sclater, Monog. Puffbirds, p. xl. 
monachal (mon'a-kal), a. [Formerly also mona- 
cal; < OF. monachal, monacal, F. monacal = Sp. 
Pg. monacal = It. monacale, < ML. monachalis, 
of a monk, < LL. monachus, a monk: see monk.] 
3828 
Of or pertaining to monks or nuns ; belonging 
to or characteristic of monastic life, especially 
with reference to external relations or person- 
al conduct; monastic; monkish: as, monachal 
morals ; monachal austerity. 
Robert de Brunne, to illustrate monachal morals, inter- 
spersed domestic stories ; and . . . that rhyming monk 
affords the most ancient specimens of English tales in 
verse. I. D'lwaeli, Amen, of Lit., I. 208. 
monachism (mon ' a-kizm), n. [= F. mona- 
chisme = Sp. monaqiiismo = Pg. It. monaclii.tin<i, 
< ML. monachismus, < LGr. /wva^ia/iof, monk- 
ery, < fiavaxof, a monk: see monk."} 1. The 
principle of living in the manner of monks; 
the system or course of life pursued by monks 
and nuns; primarily, the practice of living 
alone in religious retirement from the world ; 
religious seclusion ; secondarily, the corporate 
life of religious communities under vows of 
poverty, celibacy, and obedience to a superior. 
See monk. 
The root-idea of monacAim is . . . retirement from so- 
ciety in search of some ideal of life which society cannot 
supply, but which is thought attainable by abnegation of 
self and withdrawal from the world. This definition ap- 
plies to all forms of monachism, . . . whether amongst 
Brahmans, Buddhists, Jews, Christians, Moslems, or the 
communistic societies of the present day, even when theo- 
retically anti-theological. This broad general conception 
of monaeft&m is differenced in the following ways : It 
may take the form of absolute separation, so far as practi- 
cable, from all human intercourse, so as to give the whole 
life to solitary contemplation theanchoretic type ; or it 
may seek fellowship with kindred spirits in a new asso- 
ciation for the same common end the coenobitic type ; 
it may abandon society as incurably corrupt, as a City of 
Destruction out of which the fugitive must flee absolutely 
the Oriental view, for the most part ; or it may consid- 
er itself as having a mission to influence and regenerate 
society which has been, on the whole, and with minor 
exceptions, the Western theory of the monastic life. 
Encyc. Brit., XVI. 698. 
2. A monastic characteristic or peculiarity; 
also, such characteristics collectively. 
Florence of Worster, Huntingdon, Simeon of Durham, 
Hoveden, Mathew of Westminster, and many others of 
obscurer note, with all their mnuuAaxim. 
Milton, Hist Eng., iv. 
Monachus (mon'a-kus), . [NL.. < Gr. fiova- 
Xt>(, single, solitary, LGr. a monk: see monk.] 
1. Tinmammal., a genus of Phocidce, havingfour 
incisors above and below; the monk-seals. There 
are 2 species. M. albiventer is the seal of the Mediter- 
ranean and Black Sea. M. tropicalix is the West Indian 
seal. Also called Pelagiug and Heliophoca. 
2. In ornith., a genus of warblers containing 
such as the common blackcap, Sylvia atrica- 
pilla. J. J. Kaup, 1829. 3. In entom., a large 
and important genus of leaf-beetles, erected 
by Suffrian in 1852. It is composed of small bluish 
beetles with or without red spots, and with the body very 
convex. There are about 100 species, all American, of which 
6 belong to Korth America and the rest to more tropical 
regions. 
monacid (mon-as'id), a. [< Gr. /i6vof, single, 
+ E. acid.] Capable of saturating a single 
molecule of a monobasic acid: applied to hy- 
droxids and basic oxids. 
monact (mon-akf), a. and. [< Gr. /jovof, sin- 
gle, + auric, a ray.] I. a. Having only one ray ; 
monactinal. 
II. n. A monactinal sponge-spicule. 
monactinal (mo-nak'ti-nal), a. [< monactine 
+ -al.] Single-rayed; uniradiate, as a sponge- 
spicule. 
monactine (mo-nak'tin), a. [< Gr. fiivoc;, single, 
+ auric; (O.KTIV-), a ray.] Same as monactinal. 
Sollas. 
Monactinellinae (mo-nak"ti-ne-li'ne), w. pi. 
[NL., < Gr. /jtrvos, single, + d/cr<f (CIKTIV-), a ray, 
+ dim. -ella + -ince.] A group, subordinal or 
other, of fibrosilicious or ceratosilicoid sponges, 
having comparatively little ceratode, the skele- 
ton being mostly composed of single straight 
silicious spicules, whence the name. The bread- 
crumb sponge, Hfilichondria panicea, is a char- 
acteristic example. See Monaxonida. 
monactinelline (mo-nak-ti-nel'in), a. Of orper- 
taining to the Monactinellince. 
monad (mon'ad), n. and a. [= F. monade = 
Sp. monada = Pg. monada = It. monade, < LL. 
monas (monad-), < Gr. jiovd^ (JIQVO.&-) , a unit, unity, 
as adj. solitary, single, < fi6voc (Ionic fiovvof, 
Doric ni>vo$, orig.^ovfof), alone, solitary, single, 
sole, only; appar. akin to fiia, fern, of elf (EV-), 
one.] I. n. 1. In metaph., an individual and 
indivisible substance. The word was introduced into 
philosophy by Giordano Bruno to denote the minimum 
parts of substances supposed by him to be at once psychical 
and material. In the philosophy of Leibnitz the concep- 
tion of the monad is that of an absolutely unextended sub- 
stance existing in space, its existence consisting in its 
activities, which are ideas ; and the universe was conceived 
by him as made up of such existences. The history of each 
monadic 
monad follows an internal law, and all interaction between 
the monads is excluded ; but there is a preestablished har- 
mony between these laws for the different monads. (See 
Leibnitzian.) The Leibnitzian theory of the monad was, in 
many particulars, revived by Hermann Lotze. 
Pythagoras his manadx, so much talked of, were nothing 
else but corporeal atoms. 
Cudivorth, Intellectual System, p. 13. 
The soul is a mmiad (according to Bruno). It is never 
entirely without a body. God is the monad of monads; he 
is the minimum, because all things are external to him, 
and at the same time the maximum, since all things are 
in him. . . . The atoms of the ancients differed from one 
another in magnitude, figure, and position, but not quali- 
tatively or in internal character. The monads of Leibniz, 
on the contrary, are qualitatively differentiated by their 
ideas. All monads have ideas, but the ideas of the different 
monads are of different degrees of clearness. . . . God is 
the primitive monad; all other wonads are its fulgurations. 
Ueberwerj, Hist. Philos. (tr. by Morris), II. 27. 
2. In 610?. : (a) Any simple single-celled organ- 
ism. The name covers a great many similar but not ne- 
cessarily related unicellular organisms, some of which are 
monads in sense (&), others being plants ; others again 
are free flagellate cells representing an embryonic con- 
dition of some other organism or of wholly indeterminate 
character. 
We are warranted in considering the body as a common- 
wealth of monad*, each of which has independent powers 
of life, growth, and reproduction. 
H. Spencer, Social Statics, p. 493. 
(6) In 2067., specifically, a flagellate infusorian ; 
one of the Infusoria flagellata, characterized by 
the possession of one or two long whip-like 
flagella, and generally exhibiting an endoplast 
and a contractile vacuole. The word in this 
sense is derived from the name of the genus 
Monas. 3. In cJtem., an element whose atoms 
have the lowest valence or atomicity, which 
valence is therefore taken as unity. 
II. a. In chem. and biol., of or pertaining to 
monads; of the nature of a monad; monadi- 
form. 
Many monad metals give us their line spectra at a low 
degree of heat. J. !f. Lockyer, Spect. Anal., p. 124. 
There is reason to think that certain organisms which 
pass through a monad stage of existence, such as the Myx- 
omycetes, are, at one time of their lives, dependent upon 
external sources for their protein matter, or are animals ; 
and, at another period, manufacture it, or are plants. 
Huxley, Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms. 
monad-deme (mon'ad-dem), n. [< monad + 
deme' 2 .] A colony or aggregate of undifferen- 
tiated monads. 
Starting from the unit of the first order, the plastid or 
monad, and terming any undifferentiated aggregate a 
deme, we have a monad-deme. Encyc. Brit., XVI. 843. 
monadelph 1 (mon'a-delf), it. [< Monadelphia^.] 
In bot., a plant wfiose stamens are united in 
one body or set by the filaments. 
monadelph 2 (mon'a-delf), n. [< Monadelphia't.] 
In zool., a member of that division of mammals 
in which the uterus is single. 
Monadelphia 1 (mon-a-del'fi-a), n. pi. [NL., < 
Gr. ftavof, alone, + -afol^a, 
<d(!e^><}c, brother: sev-adel- 
hia.] The name given by 
innseus to his sixteenth 
class of plants, comprising 
those that have their sta- 
mens united into one set 
by their filaments. 
Monadelphia 2 (mon-a-del'- 
fi-a), n. pi An erroneous Monadelphous F , OW5r . 
form tor Monoaelpma. 
monadelphian (mon-a-del'fi-an), a. [< Hona- 
dclphia 1 + -an.] Same as monadelphous. 
monadelphic (mon-a-del'fik), . [As Mona- 
delphial + 48J Pertaining to a family consist- 
ing of a single individual Monadelphic form, 
in math. , a form belonging to a monadelphic type. Mon- 
adelphic type, in math., a type containing a single nu- 
merical parameter. 
monadelphpn (rnon-a-del'fon), n. [NL.: see 
Monadelphia^.] In bot., an andrcecium of which 
the filaments are combined into a single column. 
monadelphous (mon-a-del'fus), a. [AsM0o- 
delphl + -ous.] In bot., having the stamens 
united into one set by their filaments ; belong- 
ing or relating to the class Monadelphia. 
monadiary (mo-nad'i-a-ri), n.; pi. monadiaries 
(-riz). [< Nii.*moadlarmm, < LL. monas (mo- 
nad-), a monad : see monad.] The common en- 
velop of a colony of monads or monadiform 
infusorians. 
monadic (mo-nad'ik), a. [< Gr. /lovadiKoc;, single, 
< yuovdc (,uovo(!-), a unit: see monad.] 1. Per- 
taining to monads; having the nature or char- 
acter of a monad. 2. Single; not occurring 
in pairs. [Rare.] 
So, too, we have the seven openings of the head, the 
three twin pairs of eyes, ears, and nostrils, with the mo- 
nadic mouth to make the seventh. 
J. Hadley, Essays, p. 342. 
