ape
Part of speech: noun
verb
adj
Morphological type: simple
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”).
Inflected forms:
form: apes
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: apes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: aping
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: apeing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
uncommon
form: aped
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: aped
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: An anthropoid of the superfamily Hominoidea, generally larger than monkeys and distinguished from them by having no tail.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
gloss: A Hominoidea primate other than a human.
pos: noun
gloss: An unintelligent or unsophisticated person, especially one who behaves irrationally or in an uncivilised manner.
pos: noun
tags: derogatory
gloss: An unintelligent or unsophisticated person, especially one who behaves irrationally or in an uncivilised manner.
pos: noun
tags: derogatory
ethnic
slur
examples: 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.
gloss: One who apes; a foolish imitator.
pos: noun
gloss: A person who invests in meme stock, especially one who uses subreddits such as /r/wallstreetbets.
pos: noun
tags: Internet
examples: I could not think of a better representation of the good in this world, let alone this r***^([sic]) band of apes on Reddit.
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.
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.
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.
With the economy humming and the stock market near record highs, the “apes” are back—and “in full-on risk mode.”
gloss: To behave like an ape.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
gloss: To imitate or mimic, particularly to imitate poorly.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: And well their dignity it ſuits, / To ape the gravity of brutes.
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.
It is not conceived as a mere “aping” in externals nor as an enacting in the sense of assuming a foreign role.
Every year a paper or a book appears, bemoaning the fate of economics and complaining about its attempts to ape physics.
gloss: Wild; crazy.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
slang
examples: We were ape over the new look.
He went ape when he heard the bad news.
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.
Synonyms: ape
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
she-ape
skunk ape
Steller's sea ape
stoned ape theory
street ape
swamp ape
sysape
teenaper
yard ape
aper
Translations:
lang: Catalan
word: simi
lang: Catalan
word: mico
lang: Catalan
word: primat
lang: Finnish
word: apina
lang: German
word: Affe
lang: Greek
word: πίθηκος
roman: píthikos
lang: Hungarian
word: majom
lang: Italian
word: scimmione
lang: Low German
word: Aap
lang: Low German
word: Oop
lang: Macedonian
word: мајмун
roman: majmun
lang: Portuguese
word: macaco
lang: Portuguese
word: primata
lang: Russian
word: обезья́на
roman: obezʹjána
lang: Spanish
word: simio
lang: Spanish
word: mono
lang: Spanish
word: primate