▪ I. ape, n.
(eɪp)
Forms: 1 apa, 2– ape. pl. 1 apan, 2–4 apen, 3– apes.
[OE. apa m., ape f., cogn. w. LG. ape, Du. aap, OHG. affo m., affe f., MHG. affe, ON. api (Sw. apa). Prob. an adopted word in OTeut.; cf. OIr. apa, Wel. epa; Slav. op-, in Old Boh. op, Boh. op-ec, Slovak op-itza.]
1. An animal of the monkey tribe (Simiadæ); before the introduction of ‘monkey’ (16th c.), the generic name, and still (since 1700) sometimes so used poetically or rhetorically, or when their uncouth resemblance to men and mimicry of human action is the main idea (due to reaction of the vb. ape upon the n. whence it was formed).
| a 700 Epinal Gloss. 827 (Sweet O.E.T.) Phitecus, apa. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 366 Wið apan bite oððe mannes, smyre mid fearres geallan. c 1300 K. Alis. 6464 Visage after martyn apen: Folke heo buth, ful eovel y-schapen! c 1350 Will. Palerne 2298 Wilde beris & apes. 1366 Mandeville xxii. 239 Babewynes, apes, marmesettes, and othere dyverse bestes. c 1400 Rom. Rose 6839 Make I not wel tumble myn apes? 1535 Coverdale Isa. xiii. 21 Estriches shal dwell there, and Apes [1611 Satyres] shal daunse there. 1539 Taverner Erasm. Prov. 39 The fayrest of Apes is fowle. 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie (Arb.) 211 Prouerbe: An ape vvilbe an ape, by kinde as they say, Though that ye clad him all in purple array. 1610 Shakes. Temp. iv. i. 249 Apes With foreheads villanous low. 1611 Cotgr. s.v. Femme, Euerie Ape thinkes her puppie the fairest. 1650 B. Discollim. 5 The Proverb, A guilty conscience is as afraid of a feather, as an Apes tayl of a whip. 1727 Pope Dunciad i. 282 Less human genius than God gives an ape. 1857 Bohn Handbk. Prov. 310 An Ape's an ape; a varlet's a varlet; Though they be clad in silk or scarlet. 1870 Morris Earth. Par. i. I. 377 Quick-chattering apes, that yet in mockery Of anxious men wrinkle their ugly brows. |
2. a. spec. A member of the Simiadæ, having no tail nor cheek-pouches; including the gorilla, chimpanzee, orang-outan, and gibbons.
| 1699 Tyson (title) Ourang-Outang sive Homo Sylvestris; or the Anatomy of a Pigmy compared with a Monkey, an Ape, and a Man. 1764 Williams Dict. Arts s.v., The ape, properly so called, is without a tail. 1834 Penny Cycl. II. 144 We say that an ape is a monkey without a tail, and a baboon a monkey with a short tail, reserving the term monkey more particularly for those species which have very long tails; and though our early writers use these three words indiscriminately..yet the significations here given have generally prevailed since the time of Ray, and are now exclusively adopted. 1859 Darwin Orig. Spec. vii. 181 Why have not apes acquired the intellectual powers of man? |
b. to play the ape (referring to the way in which these animals mimic human form and gestures): to imitate, esp. in an inferior or spurious manner, to counterfeit, mimic the reality.
| 1579 Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 343/1 He playeth the Ape, and counterfeteth what God hath ordeined for our saluation. 1648 Pet. Eastern Ass. 23 Themselves may..play the Apes in Pulpits. |
c. Used quasi-advb. in to go ape (slang, orig. U.S.), to go ‘crazy’; to become excited, violent, sexually aggressive, etc.; to display strong enthusiasm or appreciation; also, to malfunction.
See American Speech (1961) XXXVI. 150 for an account of the phrase's development.
| 1955 Amer. Speech XXX. 117 [Air Force slang] Go ape; go ape shit, v. phr., react in an irrational manner; go into a frenzy. 1962 Datamation Feb. 31/1 Here is a great chance to go ape, for if the formats of cards are manifold, those of paper tape are megafold. 1963 D. B. Hughes Expendable Man (1964) i. 23, I go ape over Johnny Mathis. 1966 ‘T. Wells’ Matter of Love & Death vi. 63 I'm just keeping busy. I've been going ape with nothing to do. 1974 Sunday Sun (Brisbane) 4 Aug. 28/5 The local Shire Council has gone ape over the song, Laidley Where The Green Grass Grows, and they're launching it at a gala licensed cabaret in the Shire Hall on August 23. 1985 Sunday Times 10 Mar. 56/6 Brian Phelan's play..is about..a secret government computer centre that's gone ape... Its minders appear to have launched into freelance crime. |
3. Hence fig. One who ‘plays the ape’; an imitator, a mimic; a. contemptuously or derisively.
| c 1230 Ancr. R. 248 And lauhweð þe olde ape [the devil] lude to bismare. 1561 J. Daus Bullinger on Apoc. (1573) 316 Antichrist, the Ape of our Lord Christ. 1592 Greene in Shaks. Cent. Pr. 2 Let these Apes imitate your admired inventions. 1607 Hieron Wks. I. 360 The diuell is Gods ape, and seekes to counterfeit Him almost in euery thing. 1762 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) IV. 298 Every genius has his apes. 1855 H. Rogers Ess. II. vii. 332 This spurious liberalism, which is but a ridiculous ape of charity. |
† b. in a good or neutral sense. Obs.
| 1594 Carew Huarte's Exam. Wits (1616) 51 The wise and discreet is the Ape of God. 1607 Topsell Four-footed Beasts (1673) 10 The Poets (with their apes, the painters, limmers, and carvers). 1611 Shakes. Cymb. ii. ii. 31 O sleepe, thou Ape of death, lie dull upon her! 1650 Ashmole Arcanum (ed. 3) 201 Philosophy, which is the Ape of Nature. |
† 4. transf. A fool. God's ape: a natural born fool. to make any one his ape, to put an ape in his hood, to befool or dupe him. Obs.
| c 1330 Arth. & Merl. 814 Sche nere so michel ape That sche hir laid doun to slape At hir dore. c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 706 He made the person and the peple his Apes. c 1386 ― Prioress' Prol. 6 The monk put in the mannes hood an ape And in his wyves eek, by seint Austyn. 1513 Douglas æneis iv. Prol. 21 Ȝour trew seruandis [bene] silly goddis apis. 1596 Spenser F.Q. iii. ix. 31 Thus was the ape By their faire handling put into Malbeccoes cape. 1611 Shakes. Cymb. iv. ii. 194 Iollity for Apes, and greefe for Boyes. 1741 Richardson Pamela (1824) I. 154 That she should instigate the titled ape her husband to write to me. |
5. sea ape: the fish Squalus Vulpes, also called Sea Fox, and Thresher.
| 1607 Topsell Four-footed Beasts (1673) 375 As the Lion recovereth by eating an Ape of the Earth, so is the Dolphin cured by eating an Ape of the Sea. 1769 Pennant Brit. Zool. III. 86 Sea-fox, Synon. Sea-ape. 1861 J. Couch Brit. Fishes I. 37 Sea ape = Thrasher. |
6. to lead apes in hell: the fancied consequence of dying an old maid. to say an ape's paternoster: to chatter with cold.
| 1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 87 Rather thou shouldest leade a lyfe to thine owne lyking in earthe, than..leade Apes in Hell. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. ii. i. 34 She is your treasure..I must..for your loue to her, leade Apes in hell. 1605 Lond. Prodigal i. 2 'Tis an old proverb, and you know it well, That women dying maids lead apes in hell. 1611 Cotgr., Grelotter, To shake, tremble..say an Apes Pater-noster. 1653 Urquhart Rabelais i. xi, He would flay the Fox, say the Apes Paternoster. 1723 S. Centlivre Bold Stroke ii. i, Poor girl: she must certainly lead Apes, as the saying is. 1830 Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) I. 198 Joining with other old women, in leading their apes in Tartarus. |
† 7. as adj. Foolish, silly. adv. Foolishly, sillily.
| c 1370 Wyclif Wks. (1879) 412 Many siche ape resouns han men herd aȝenus crist. 1509 Barclay Ship of Fooles (1570) 33 Some are ape dronke, full of laughter and of toyes, Some mery dronke. |
8. Comb. and attrib., as ape-headed, ape-like, ape-mind; † ape-bearer, -carrier, one who carried a monkey about for exhibition, a strolling buffoon; † ape-fox, ? the opossum; † ape-keeper, -ward, = ape-bearer; † ape-leader, an old maid, see 6; † ape-ware, counterfeit wares.
| 1647 Ward Simple Cobl. 29 Ape-headed pullets, which invent Antique foole-fangles. 1859 R. Burton in Jrnl. R.G.S. XXIX. 314 The general aspect in old age..among the women, is hideously ape-like. 1859 Mill Lib. 106 Any other faculty than the apelike one of imitation. 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. iv. iii. 101, I know this man well: he hath bene since an Ape-bearer. a 1613 Overbury Charac. O 7 (T.) There is nothing in the earth so pitiful; no, not an ape-carrier. 1630 B. Jonson New Inn v. i, Jugglers, and gipsies..colonies of beggars, tumblers, ape-carriers. 1594 Blundevil Exerc. v. (ed. 7) 570 Gesner calleth this Beast an Ape-Foxe, or a Fox-Ape. 1600 Cornwallyes Ess. ii. (1632) Let Ape-keepers, and Players catch the eares of their Auditory. 1651 Brome Jov. Crew ii. (1652) 372, I will rather hazard my being one of the Devil's Ape-leaders, then to marry while he is melancholly. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. vi. 119 ‘No,’ quaþ an Ape⁓ward ‘for nout þat I knowe.’ c 1230 Ancr. R. 248 Ne mei he buten scheawe þe uorð sumwhat of his apeware. |
▪ II. ape, v.
(eɪp)
[f. prec. n.]
1. To imitate, mimic: a. pretentiously, irrationally, or absurdly.
| 1632 Massinger City Mad. iv. iv, Why should you ape The fashions of court-ladies? 1713 Addison Cato i. ii, Curse on the Stripling! how he apes his Sire! 1751 Johnson Rambl. No. 179 ¶3 When they assume the dignity of knowledge, or ape the sprightliness of wit. 1866 G. Macdonald Ann. Quiet Neighb. x. (1878) 172 That foolish emulation which makes one class ape another from afar. |
b. in a good or neutral sense. rare.
| 1634 Herbert Trav. 15 The women imitate (or ape) the men. 1662 Fuller Worthies (1840) III. 124 Alabaster..which apes ivory in the whiteness and smoothness thereof. 1663 Sir G. Mackenzie Relig. Stoic xiii. (1685) 119 Art, which is man's offspring, doth ape nature. 1835 Sir J. Ross N.-W. Passage xvi. 252 Aping the appearance of the animal. |
2. to ape it: to play the ape, mimic the reality.
| a 1658 Cleveland Def. Protector 2 What's a Protector? He's a stately Thing, That Apes it in the Non-age of a King. 1672 T. Jacomb Rom. viii. (1868) 304 The devil who loves to ape it after God. 1683 tr. Erasm. Mor. Encom. 81 One apes it about in the streets, to court popularity. |