ape
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”), 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 clade 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 uncivilized person.
- One who apes; a foolish imitator.
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
- ape hangers
- apehood
- apekind
- Apelanta
- ape leader
- apelet
- apelike
- apeling
- apely
- apeman
- ape-man
- apeness
- ape-person
- aperest
- apery
- apesault
- ape shit
- apeshit
- apess
- apewoman
- apish
- aquatic ape hypothesis
- aquatic ape theory
- Barbary ape
- Bili ape
- black ape (Macaca nigra)
- go ape
- God's ape
- great ape
- gutter ape
- gutter ape
- half-ape
- hog-ape
- hog-faced ape
- lesser ape
- like a raped ape
- man ape
- naked ape
- North American wood ape
- nose ape
- pavement ape
- rape ape
- red ape
- sacred ape
- sea ape
- semi-ape
- she-ape
- skunk ape
- stoned ape theory
- street ape
- swamp ape
- sysape
- teenaper
- yard ape
Translations
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Verb
ape (third-person singular simple present apes, present participle aping or 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[1]:
- 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
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Etymology 2
Clipping of apeshit (“ape-shit (crazy)”).
Adjective
ape (not comparable)
See also
- monkey
- troop (collective noun)
- Appendix: Animals
Anagrams
Afrikaans
Pronunciation
Noun
ape
Aromanian
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
ape f (plural api, definite articulation apa)
- Alternative form of apã
Corsican
Noun
ape
Finnish
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
ape
- horse feed
- (colloquial) food
Declension
Inflection of ape (Kotus type 48*B/hame, pp-p gradation) | |||
---|---|---|---|
nominative | ape | appeet | |
genitive | appeen | appeiden appeitten | |
partitive | apetta | appeita | |
illative | appeeseen | appeisiin appeihin | |
singular | plural | ||
nominative | ape | appeet | |
accusative | nom. | ape | appeet |
gen. | appeen | ||
genitive | appeen | appeiden appeitten | |
partitive | apetta | appeita | |
inessive | appeessa | appeissa | |
elative | appeesta | appeista | |
illative | appeeseen | appeisiin appeihin | |
adessive | appeella | appeilla | |
ablative | appeelta | appeilta | |
allative | appeelle | appeille | |
essive | appeena | appeina | |
translative | appeeksi | appeiksi | |
abessive | appeetta | appeitta | |
instructive | — | appein | |
comitative | See the possessive forms below. |
Further reading
- “ape”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish][2] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-02
Guaraní
Pronunciation
Noun
ape
Interlingua
Etymology
From Latin apis, apem.
Noun
ape (plural apes)
Related terms
Italian
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
ape f (plural api)
- (entomology) bee
- Synonym: pecchia
- (colloquial) honeybee
- Synonyms: ape da miele, ape domestica
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
Mbyá Guaraní
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
- 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 2018-07-15.
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.
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
Related terms
References
- Wagner, Max Leopold (1960–1964) Dizionario etimologico sardo, Heidelberg
- Rubattu, Antoninu (2006) Dizionario universale della lingua di Sardegna, 2nd edition, Sassari: Edes
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/eɪp
- Rhymes:English/eɪp/1 syllable
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English derogatory terms
- English verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English clippings
- English adjectives
- English uncomparable adjectives
- English slang
- English terms with usage examples
- English autohyponyms
- English three-letter words
- en:People
- en:Primates
- Afrikaans terms with IPA pronunciation
- Afrikaans non-lemma forms
- Afrikaans noun forms
- Aromanian terms inherited from Latin
- Aromanian terms derived from Latin
- Aromanian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Aromanian terms with audio pronunciation
- Aromanian lemmas
- Aromanian nouns
- Aromanian feminine nouns
- Corsican non-lemma forms
- Corsican noun forms
- Finnish terms suffixed with -e
- Finnish 2-syllable words
- Finnish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Finnish/ɑpe
- Rhymes:Finnish/ɑpe/2 syllables
- Finnish lemmas
- Finnish nouns
- Finnish colloquialisms
- Finnish hame-type nominals
- fi:Animal foods
- fi:Food and drink
- Guaraní lemmas
- Guaraní nouns
- gn:Body parts
- Interlingua terms derived from Latin
- Interlingua lemmas
- Interlingua nouns
- Italian terms derived from Latin
- Italian 2-syllable words
- Italian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Italian terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:Italian/ape
- Rhymes:Italian/ape/2 syllables
- Italian lemmas
- Italian nouns
- Italian countable nouns
- Italian feminine nouns
- it:Entomology
- Italian colloquialisms
- it:Bees
- Latin non-lemma forms
- Latin verb forms
- Mauritian Creole terms derived from French
- Mauritian Creole terms with IPA pronunciation
- Mauritian Creole lemmas
- Mauritian Creole verbs
- Mauritian Creole invariable verbs
- Mauritian Creole auxiliary verbs
- Mbyá Guaraní lemmas
- Mbyá Guaraní nouns
- Middle English terms inherited from Old English
- Middle English terms derived from Old English
- Middle English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- Middle English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- Middle English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- Middle English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Middle English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns
- enm:Mammals
- Neapolitan non-lemma forms
- Neapolitan noun forms
- Norwegian Bokmål terms with IPA pronunciation
- Norwegian Bokmål terms derived from Old Norse
- Norwegian Bokmål lemmas
- Norwegian Bokmål nouns
- Norwegian Bokmål feminine nouns
- Norwegian Bokmål masculine nouns
- Norwegian Bokmål nouns with multiple genders
- Norwegian Bokmål verbs
- nb:Primates
- Norwegian Nynorsk terms derived from Old Norse
- Norwegian Nynorsk lemmas
- Norwegian Nynorsk nouns
- Norwegian Nynorsk masculine nouns
- Norwegian Nynorsk feminine nouns
- Norwegian Nynorsk verbs
- Norwegian Nynorsk weak verbs
- nn:Primates
- Romanian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Romanian non-lemma forms
- Romanian noun forms
- Sardinian terms inherited from Latin
- Sardinian terms derived from Latin
- Sardinian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Sardinian lemmas
- Sardinian nouns
- Sardinian feminine nouns
- Nuorese