Definition of "jocko" []

• An ape; same as jacko, 1. (noun)
• Originally adopted by Buffon as the proper common name for the chimpanzee, it has become the favorite nickname for any of the smaller monkeys and the original use of the word has been forgotten. The name is a sophistication of a West African name. Buffon's jocko standing for enjocko, and that for West African engeco, ncheko, nshiego, enche-eko, etc., a chimpanzee. (noun)

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "The Italian word gioco pronounced jocko means I play, so I thought, maybe, possibly, Domenico was trying to say, I play without limits, which might have meant he didnt abide by the rules of scoring."
• "Becker then, having carefully investigated the creature, pronounced it to be (as we already know) a full-grown specimen of a kind of ape, called by the Africans "the wild man of the woods," and by naturalists the _jocko_ or chimpanzee."
• "European planters, and the negroes of Africa, have no doubt embellished with many features taken from the description of the manners of the orang-otang, * the gibbon, the jocko or chimpanzee, and the pongo, followed us, during five years, from the northern to the southern hemisphere."