English Explanatory Dictionary

ape

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. An anthropoid of the superfamily Hominoidea, generally larger than monkeys and distinguished from them by having no tail.
  2. A Hominoidea primate other than a human.
  3. An unintelligent or unsophisticated person, especially one who behaves irrationally or in an uncivilised manner.
  4. A black person.
  5. One who apes; a foolish imitator.
  6. A person who invests in meme stock, especially one who uses subreddits such as /r/wallstreetbets.
verb
  1. To behave like an ape.
  2. To imitate or mimic, particularly to imitate poorly.
adj
  1. Wild; crazy.
noun
  1. Initialism of alkylphenol ethoxylate.

Pronunciation

āp /eɪp/ en-us-ape.ogg

Word forms

ape apes aping apeing aped

Etymology

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”).

Synonyms

ape

Related words

monkey troop Animals

Derived words

ape-baboon 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) Bili ape black ape bush ape dental ape go ape God's ape great ape gutter ape half-ape hog-ape hog-faced ape lesser ape like a raped ape man ape naked ape night-ape North American wood ape nose ape pavement ape rape ape red ape sacred ape sea ape semi-ape

Translations

Catalan: simi Catalan: mico Catalan: primat Finnish: apina German: Affe Greek: πίθηκος Hungarian: majom Italian: scimmione Low German: Aap Low German: Oop Macedonian: мајмун Portuguese: macaco Portuguese: primata Russian: обезья́на Spanish: simio Spanish: mono Spanish: primate
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on A Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary