Etymograph

English

ape

Ape comes from Middle English ape ‘an ape or monkey’, and perhaps goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep- ‘water’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂ep-1‘water’uncertain
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*apô1‘monkey, ape’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*apō1‘simian (ape, monkey)’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150apa1‘ape, monkey’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500ape1‘an ape or monkey’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1528ape1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English ape
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1528, William Tyndale other wise Called William Hychins vnto the R: “Of vvhat texte thou proveſt hell / vvill a…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂ep-Wiktionary, English ape‘water’uncertain
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*apôWiktionary, English ape‘monkey, ape’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*apōWiktionary, English ape‘simian (ape, monkey)’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150apaWiktionary, English ape‘ape, monkey’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500apeWiktionary, English ape‘an ape or monkey’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1528apeWiktionary, English ape. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 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.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep- ‘water’

attitude, apt, aptitude, apex, aven, attitudinal, 22 more

Today it means

noun An anthropoid of the superfamily Hominoidea, generally larger than monkeys and distinguished from them by having no tail.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “ape”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep- / ape

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