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ape
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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See also: Appendix:Variations of "ape"
Translingual
Etymology
Symbol
ape
See also
English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle English ape, from Old English apa (“ape, monkey”), from Proto-West Germanic *apō, from Proto-Germanic *apô (“monkey, ape”), possibly derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep- (“water”), compare Proto-Celtic *abū (“river”) (hence English place name Avon, Irish abha, Welsh afon), if the word originally referred to a "water sprite". Traditionally assumed to be an ancient loanword instead, ultimately probably from an unidentified non-Indo-European language of regions in Africa or Asia where monkeys are native. Cognate with Scots aip (“ape”), West Frisian aap (“ape”), Dutch aap (“monkey, ape”), Low German Ape (“ape”), German Affe (“monkey, ape”), Swedish apa (“monkey, ape”), Icelandic api (“ape”).
Noun
ape (plural apes)
- A primate of the superfamily Hominoidea, generally larger than monkeys and distinguished from them by having no tail.
- 1528 October 12 (Gregorian calendar), William Tyndale, “William Tyndale other wise Called William Hychins vnto the Reader”, in The Obediẽce of a Christen Man […], [Antwerp]: [Johannes Hoochstraten], →OCLC, folio xix, recto:
- Of vvhat texte thou proveſt hell / vvill a nother prove purgatory / a nother lymbo patrum / and a nother the aſſumpcion of oure ladi: And a nother ſhall prove of the ſame texte that an Ape hath a tayle.
- Any such primate other than a human.
- (derogatory) An unintelligent or unsophisticated person, especially one who behaves irrationally or in an uncivilised manner.
- One who apes; a foolish imitator.
- (offensive, ethnic slur) A black person.
Hyponyms
- (young or small): apeling, apelet (uncommon)
- (female): apess (rare)
- See also Thesaurus:ape
Derived terms
- ape-baboon (macaque)
- ape-bearer
- apedom
- apefirmative action
- ape-fissure
- apefly
- Apefrica
- Apefrican
- apegirl
- apehanger, ape hanger
- apehood
- ape in
- apekind
- Apelanta
- ape leader
- apelet
- apelike
- apeling
- apely
- apeman, ape-man
- apeness
- ape-person
- aperest
- apery
- apesault
- apeshit, ape shit
- apess
- apetempt
- apewoman
- apish
- aquatic ape theory, aquatic ape hypothesis
- Barbary ape (Macaca sylvanus))
- Bili ape
- black ape (Macaca nigra)
- dental ape (†Dryopithecus spp.)
- go ape
- God's ape
- great ape
- gutter ape
- half-ape (Lemuroidea)
- hog-ape, hog-faced ape (Papio spp.)
- lesser ape
- like a raped ape
- man ape
- naked ape
- night-ape (Aotus spp.)
- North American wood ape
- nose ape (Nasalis larvatus)
- pavement ape
- rape ape
- red ape (Pongo spp.)
- sacred ape (Semnopithecus entellus)
- sea ape (Enhydra lutris)
- semi-ape
- she-ape
- skunk ape
- Steller's sea ape
- stoned ape theory
- street ape
- swamp ape
- sysape
- teenaper
- yard ape
Translations
primate of the clade Hominoidea
|
any such primate other than a human
derogatory: uncivilized person
|
Verb
ape (third-person singular simple present apes, present participle aping or (uncommon) apeing, simple past and past participle aped)
- (intransitive) To behave like an ape.
- (transitive) To imitate or mimic, particularly to imitate poorly.
- 1772, [Thomas Bridges], “Something by Way of Preface”, in A Burlesque Translation of Homer, London: Printed for S. Hooper, […], →OCLC:
- And well their dignity it ſuits, / To ape the gravity of brutes.
- 1847, Emily Brontë, chapter XXI, in Wuthering Heights:
- But there’s this difference; one is gold put to the use of paving-stones, and the other is tin polished to ape a service of silver.
- 1961, J. A. Philip, “Mimesis in the Sophistês of Plato,”, in Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, volume 92, page 454:
- It is not conceived as a mere “aping” in externals nor as an enacting in the sense of assuming a foreign role.
- 2010, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, New York: Random House, →ISBN, page 180:
- Every year a paper or a book appears, bemoaning the fate of economics and complaining about its attempts to ape physics.
Derived terms
Translations
to behave like an ape
|
to imitate
|
Etymology 2
Clipping of apeshit (“ape-shit (crazy)”).
Adjective
ape (not comparable)
- (slang) Wild; crazy.
- We were ape over the new look.
- He went ape when he heard the bad news.
- 2025 October 31, Trey Parker, “The Woman in the Hat”, in South Park, season 28, episode 2, spoken by Kyle Schwartz:
- Now we just need to create hype around the South Park Sucks Now digital coin, so we need to come up with things to give people FOMO and make them ape even harder.
See also
- monkey
- troop (collective noun)
- Appendix: Animals
Anagrams
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Afrikaans
Pronunciation
Noun
ape
Aromanian
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
ape f (plural api, definite articulation apa)
- alternative form of apã
Bangka
Alternative forms
- apo (Belinyu dialect)
Etymology
From Proto-Malayic *apa, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *apa. Cognate of Malay apa.
Pronunciation
Pronoun
apè or apê
- what
- Ape kabar?
- How are you?
- (literally, “What's the news?”)
Further reading
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Corsican
Noun
ape
Finnish
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
ape
- horse feed
- (colloquial) food
Declension
Derived terms
compounds
Further reading
- “ape”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2 July 2023
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Interlingua
Etymology
From Latin apis, apem.
Noun
ape (plural apes)
Related terms
Italian
Alternative forms
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
ape f (plural api)
- (entomology) bee
- Synonym: pecchia
- (colloquial) honeybee
- Synonyms: ape da miele, ape domestica
Derived terms
- ape da miele
- ape domestica
- ape italiana
- ape legnaiola
- ape muratrice
- ape nera
- ape operaia
- ape regina
- apicoltura
- apiterapia
- mangiaapi
Related terms
Further reading
ape on the Italian Wikipedia.Wikipedia it
Anagrams
Latin
Verb
ape
References
- “ape”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
Mauritian Creole
Alternative forms
Etymology
From French après. Compare Haitian Creole ap.
Pronunciation
Verb
ape (medial form ape)
- (auxiliary) Used to indicate present progressive tense or the continuous tense in general, commonly shortened to "pe" in speech.
Related terms
Mbya Guarani
Noun
ape (non-possessed form tape)
Middle English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Old English apa, from Proto-West Germanic *apō, from Proto-Germanic *apô.
Pronunciation
Noun
ape (plural apes or (rare) apen)
- An ape or monkey; a simian creature.
- A deceiver; a conman or charlatan.
- A gullible or foolish person.
Descendants
References
- “āpe, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 15 July 2018.
Neapolitan
Noun
ape
Norwegian Bokmål
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
Noun
ape f or m (definite singular apa or apen, indefinite plural aper, definite plural apene)
Related terms
Etymology 2
Verb
ape (imperative ap, present tense aper, passive apes, simple past apa or apet or apte, past participle apa or apet or apt, present participle apende)
References
- “ape” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
Norwegian Nynorsk
Etymology 1
Noun
ape m (definite singular apen, indefinite plural apar, definite plural apane)
ape f (definite singular apa, indefinite plural aper, definite plural apene)
Related terms
Etymology 2
Verb
ape (present tense apar, past tense apa, past participle apa, passive infinitive apast, present participle apande, imperative ape/ap)
- e-infinitive form of apa
References
- “ape” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
Paraguayan Guarani
Pronunciation
Noun
ape
Romanian
Pronunciation
Noun
ape
Sardinian
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Latin apis, apem. Compare Logudorese abe, Campidanese abi.
Pronunciation
Noun
ape f (plural apes)
Derived terms
- ape mascru
- ape reina
Related terms
- abbutu
- apiana
- apiolu
- apiàriu
- àbia
References
- Wagner, Max Leopold (1960–1964), Dizionario etimologico sardo, Heidelberg
- Rubattu, Antoninu (2006), Dizionario universale della lingua di Sardegna, 2nd edition, Sassari: Edes
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