English
ape
Ape comes from Middle English ape ‘an ape or monkey’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *apô.
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*apô‘monkey, ape’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*apō‘simian (ape, monkey)’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150apa‘ape, monkey’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500ape‘an ape or monkey’
- Englishearliest quotation 1528ape
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*apô‘monkey, ape’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*apō‘simian (ape, monkey)’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150apa‘ape, monkey’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500ape‘an ape or monkey’
- Englishearliest quotation 1528ape
Earliest quotation: 1528, William Tyndale other wise Called William Hychins vnto the R: “Of vvhat texte thou proveſt hell / vvill a…”
The story
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.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep- ‘water’
Today it means
noun An anthropoid of the superfamily Hominoidea, generally larger than monkeys and distinguished from them by having no tail.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *apô / ape