ape

Abbreviation of English Arapesh.

ape

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Bukiyip.

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Bukiyip terms

• enPR: āp, IPA^(key): /eɪp/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪp

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”).

ape (plural apes)

1. An anthropoid of the superfamily 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.

2. A Hominoidea primate other than a human.
3. (derogatory) An unintelligent or unsophisticated person, especially one who behaves irrationally or in an uncivilised manner.
   1. (derogatory, highly offensive, ethnic slur) A black person.
      • 2022 October, René Cornish, Kieran Tranter, “Dismissals for Social Media Hate Speech in South Africa: Animalistic Dehumanisation and the Circulation of Racist Words and Images”, in Springer Nature Link‎^[1]:

        Animalistic dehumanisation, 'simianisation' and the animalising of black bodies through metaphorically likening these individuals to 'baboons,' 'monkeys' or 'apes' reveals racialised animality discourse in South Africa.

4. One who apes; a foolish imitator.
5. (Internet slang, Reddit) A person who invests in meme stock, especially one who uses subreddits such as /r/wallstreetbets.
   • 2021 February 18, Kate Briquelet, Arya Hodjat, anonymous quotee, “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Tears Into Robinhood CEO at GameStop Hearing: Meanwhile, Reddit's Roaring Kitty showed up for his congressional testimony with viral cat memes”, in Daily Beast‎^[2], via EBSCOhost:

     I could not think of a better representation of the good in this world, let alone this r***^[sic] band of apes on Reddit.

   • 2022 September 12, Ryan Cohen, “The Money Game: Jen Wieczner”, in New York‎^[3], volume 55, number 19, via EBSCOhost, →ISSN, pages 14-15:

     The tragic consequences of Bed Bath & Beyond's whiplashing fortunes have cast an even darker cloud over Cohen's reputation. But in all likelihood the meme-stock phenomenon is here to stay--even if Cohen and his ilk are profiting off the backs of the "apes" who support them.

   • 2023 October, Misti Yang, Christopher Lee Adamczyk, “Gamestop Investors as an Eng(r)aged Digital Public”, in Javnost - The Public, volume 30, number 3, Routledge, →DOI, →ISSN, page 414:

     In their self-professed and commonly invoked role of “degenerates” and “apes,” r/wallstreetbets commenters regularly adopt language of worship for those they admire, and in the case of GameStop, DeepFuckingValue, aka Roaring Kitty, aka Keith Gill was deemed worthy.

   • 2024 May, Linea Munk Petersen, “Everything you need to know about WallStreetBets: An explainer of the online forum behind the GameStop short squeeze and its creatively subversive poetic terrorism”, in Ephemera: Theory & Politics in Organization‎^[4], volume 24, number 2, via EBSCOhost, →ISSN, pages 239-240:

     It was however widely misinterpreted by mainstream media as an expression of the inability of the WallStreetBets members to make rational financial decisions (Pearkes, 2021)⁵. The argument that apes were incompetent investors was particularly reliant on one term: loss porn.

   • 2025 August 8, “DORKs: The return of ‘meme stock’ mania”, in Week‎^[5], volume 25, number 1247, via EBSCOhost, →ISSN, page 33:

     With the economy humming and the stock market near record highs, the “apes” are back—and “in full-on risk mode.”

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

• → Mokilese: ep

ape (third-person singular simple present apes, present participle aping or (uncommon) 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^[6]:

     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.

• aper

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

ape (not comparable)

1. (slang) Wild; crazy.

   We were ape over the new look.

   He went ape when he heard the bad news.

   • 2025 October 31, Trey Parker, “The Woman in the Hat”, in South Park, season 28, episode 2, spoken by Kyle Schwartz:

     Now we just need to create hype around the South Park Sucks Now digital coin, so we need to come up with things to give people FOMO and make them ape even harder.

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

• EAP, EPA, PAE, PEA, Pae, Pea, pea

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑː.pə/

ape

1. plural of aap

From Latin aqua.

• IPA^(key): [ˈape]

• Audio:

  (file)

ape f (plural api, definite articulation apa)

1. alternative form of apã

• apo (Belinyu dialect)

From Proto-Malayic *apa, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *apa. Cognate of Malay apa.

• (Pangkalpinang, Toboali) IPA^(key): [a.pɛ]
  • Rhymes: -pɛ, -ɛ
• (Muntok) IPA^(key): [a.pə]
  • Rhymes: -pə, -ə

  • Audio:

    (file)

apè or apê

1. what

   Ape kabar?

   How are you?

   (literally, “What's the news?”)

• "ape" in Susilo, Firman (2018), Kamus Bahasa Melayu Bangka – Indonesia [Bangka Malay – Indonesian Dictionary]‎^[7] (in Indonesian), Pangkalpinang: Bangka-Belitung Language Center Office

ape

1. plural of apa

From Proto-Finnic *ap'ëk. Equivalent to appaa +‎ -e

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑpeˣ/, [ˈɑ̝pe̞(ʔ)]
• Rhymes: -ɑpe
• Syllabification^(key): a‧pe
• Hyphenation^(key): ape

ape

1. horse feed
2. (colloquial) food

• “ape”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[8] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2 July 2023

From Latin apis, apem.

ape (plural apes)

1. bee

• apicultura

• apa (archaic, dialectal)

Inherited from Latin apem.

• IPA^(key): /ˈa.pe/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ape
• Hyphenation: à‧pe

ape f (plural api)

1. (entomology) bee

   Synonym: pecchia

2. (colloquial) honeybee

   Synonyms: ape da miele, ape domestica

• ape on the Italian Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^it

• epa

ape

1. second-person singular present active imperative of apō

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

• (schwa-variety) IPA^(key): /ˈapə/ [ˈa.pə]
• Hyphenation: a‧pe

ape

1. (text messaging) pronunciation spelling of apa, representing schwa-variety Malay

• pe

From French après. Compare Haitian Creole ap.

• IPA^(key): /(a)pe/

ape (medial form ape)

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

• ti ape

ape (non-possessed form tape)

1. path
2. road, street

• aape (Late Middle English, rare)
• eape (AB language)

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈaːp(ə)/

ape (plural apes or (rare) apen)

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

• English: ape
• Scots: ape, aip
• → Cornish: apa
• → Middle Irish:
  • Irish: ápa
  • Manx: apey, eapey
  • Scottish Gaelic: apa
• → Welsh: âb, epa

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

ape

1. plural of apa

• IPA^(key): /aːpe/

From Old Norse api.

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

1. ape, monkey

• apekatt
• primat

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.

• “ape” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Old Norse api.

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

• apekatt
• primat

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

• “ape” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From Proto-Baltic *āpē-, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep- (“water”).

ape

1. river
2. stream

• *Goldape (toponym)
  • → Polish: Gołdap

• 1561, Martin Luther, translated by Abel Will & Paul Megott, Stas Likuts Catechismus [The Small Catechism], →OCLC, [ page ], line :

• IPA^(key): [aˈpe]
• Rhymes: -e

ape

1. back, the rear of the body.
2. Of an animal, fruit, vegetable, etc., shell

• Canese, Natalia Krivoshein de; Alcaraz, Feliciano Acosta (2016), “ape”, in Ñe’ẽryru [Dictionary] (overall work in Spanish), Asunción: Instituto Superior de Lenguas, →ISBN, page 15, column 1

• IPA^(key): [ˈape]

ape

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

• abe

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈape/

ape f (plural apes)

1. (Nuorese) bee

• Wagner, Max Leopold (1960–1964), Dizionario etimologico sardo, Heidelberg
• Rubattu, Antoninu (2006), Dizionario universale della lingua di Sardegna, 2nd edition, Sassari: Edes