ape

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A large primate such as a gorilla or chimpanzee, without a tail.

   Gorillas and chimpanzees are the largest apes.

2. 2
   verb

   To copy or imitate someone, often badly.

   My younger brother apes everything I do.

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,…

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