[jfaucett]

hmm, if we called them what they are we'd call them "type wrapper functions" and talk about "type wrapper function chains", monads carries zero metaphorical/associative meaning. I think thats the problem with the name and a large reason people find them so unapproachable, most other terms in computer science carry significant associative meaning that helps in learning them, pointers have to do with pointing at things, functions carry the mathematical meaning of a set of inputs mapping to a set of outputs, etc.

[nbouscal]

You're demonstrating that you don't know what monads are. "Type wrapper function" could mean any number of things (lack of specificity is a bad trait in naming), but it couldn't mean a monad: monads consist of three things, whereas "type wrapper function" implies one thing.

Names don't need to be metaphorical. The purpose of a name is not to teach you what the thing is. For that, you should have a proper explanation from someone who knows. Names have a different, very important purpose: uniquely specifying the thing being named. "Monad" does that very effectively.