Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/apô

This Proto-Germanic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Possibly derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep- (“water”), compare Proto-Celtic *abū (“river”), if the word originally referred to a “water sprite”. Compare Proto-Celtic *abankos (“water creature”), from whence Welsh afanc and Breton avank (“beaver”), Middle Irish abacc (“dwarf”).

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. The same wanderwort may be reflected in Hebrew קוֹף (qōf), Akkadian uqūpu, Egyptian gfj, Middle Persian (kpyk' /⁠kabīg⁠/), Sanskrit कपि (kapí), all meaning “monkey, ape, vel sim.”, and Ancient Greek κῆπος (kêpos, “long-tailed monkey”). As Kroonen notes, the lack of an initial velar consonant in Germanic would then imply that the foreign word entered at a very early pre-Germanic stage, such that it was borrowed with an initial laryngeal, either *h₂eb- or *h₃eb-.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑ.pɔːː/

*apô m

1. ape, monkey