ape

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

ape

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• enPR: āp, IPA^(key): /eɪp/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪp

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)

1. A primate of the clade Hominoidea, generally larger than monkeys and distinguished from them by having no tail.
2. Any such primate other than a human.
3. (derogatory) An uncivilized person.
4. One who apes; a foolish imitator.

Hyponyms

• (young or small): apeling, apelet (uncommon)
• (female): apess (rare)
• See also Thesaurus:ape

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

ape (third-person singular simple present apes, present participle aping or apeing, simple past and past participle aped)

1. (intransitive) To behave like an ape.
2. (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

• aper

Translations

Etymology 2

Clipping of apeshit (“ape-shit (crazy)”).

Adjective

ape (not comparable)

1. (slang) Wild; crazy.

   We were ape over the new look.

   He went ape when he heard the bad news.

See also

• monkey
• troop (collective noun)
• Appendix: Animals

Anagrams

• EAP, EPA, PAE, PEA, Pae, Pea, pea

Afrikaans

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑː.pə/

Noun

ape

1. plural of aap

Aromanian

Etymology

From Latin aqua.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

ape f (plural api, definite articulation apa)

1. Alternative form of apã

Corsican

Noun

ape

1. plural of apa

Finnish

Etymology

appaa +‎ -e

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑpeˣ/,
• Rhymes: -ɑpe
• Syllabification^(key): a‧pe

Noun

ape

1. horse feed
2. (colloquial) food

Declension

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 2023-07-02

Guaraní

Noun

ape

1. back

Interlingua

Etymology

From Latin apis, apem.

Noun

ape (plural apes)

1. bee

Related terms

• apicultura

Italian

Etymology

From Latin apem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈa.pe/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ape
• Hyphenation: à‧pe

Noun

ape f (plural api)

1. (entomology) bee

   Synonym: pecchia

2. (colloquial) honeybee

   Synonyms: ape da miele, ape domestica

Related terms

Further reading

• ape on the Italian Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^it

Anagrams

• epa

Latin

Verb

ape

1. second-person singular present active imperative of apō

References

• “ape”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press

Mauritian Creole

Alternative forms

• pe

Etymology

From French après. Compare Haitian Creole ap.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /(a)pe/

Verb

ape (medial form ape)

1. (auxiliary) Used to indicate present progressive tense or the continuous tense in general, commonly shortened to "pe" in speech.

Related terms

• ti ape

Mbyá Guaraní

Noun

ape (non-possessed form tape)

1. path
2. road, street

Middle English

Alternative forms

• eape, aape

Etymology

From Old English apa, from Proto-West Germanic *apō, from Proto-Germanic *apô.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈaːp(ə)/

Noun

ape (plural apes or apen)

1. An ape or monkey; a simian creature.
2. A deceiver; a conman or charlatan.
3. A gullible or foolish person.

Descendants

• English: ape
• Scots: ape, aip

References

• “āpe, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-07-15.

Neapolitan

Noun

ape

1. plural of apa

Norwegian Bokmål

Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:

Aper

Wikipedia ^no

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aːpe/

Etymology 1

From Old Norse api.

Noun

ape f or m (definite singular apa or apen, indefinite plural aper, definite plural apene)

1. ape, monkey

Related terms

• apekatt
• primat

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)

1. to ape, mimic or imitate.

References

• “ape” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology 1

From Old Norse api.

Noun

ape m (definite singular apen, indefinite plural apar, definite plural apane)

ape f (definite singular apa, indefinite plural aper, definite plural apene)

1. ape, monkey

Related terms

• apekatt
• primat

Etymology 2

Verb

ape (present tense apar, past tense apa, past participle apa, passive infinitive apast, present participle apande, imperative ape/ap)

1. e-infinitive form of apa

References

• “ape” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Noun

ape

1. inflection of apă:
   1. plural
   2. genitive/dative singular

Sardinian

Alternative forms

• abe

Etymology

From Latin apis, apem. Compare Logudorese abe, Campidanese abi.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈape/

Noun

ape f (plural apes)

1. (Nuorese) bee

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