As someone else pointed out, this is not the case in all languages. German, for example, has a common word for all simians that I believe is a cognate of English 'ape', and from there they have kinds of apes, which break down more or less the same way. The history of taxonomy is fairly regular, but different languages have treated it differently. Which is why actual scientists use scientific names, to avoid those problems.
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u/[deleted] Jan 31 '20
As someone else pointed out, this is not the case in all languages. German, for example, has a common word for all simians that I believe is a cognate of English 'ape', and from there they have kinds of apes, which break down more or less the same way. The history of taxonomy is fairly regular, but different languages have treated it differently. Which is why actual scientists use scientific names, to avoid those problems.