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 sb. 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. Maundev., 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. Shaks., Temp., IV. i. 249. Apes With foreheads villanous low.
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Femme, Euerie Ape thinkes her puppie the fairest.
1650. B., Discolliminium, 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. 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.
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. Daus, trans. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573), 316. Anticrist, 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. Shaks., 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. Ibid. (c. 1386), Prioresses 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. Shaks., 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. Shaks., Tam. Shrew, 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. Mrs. 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, Simp. Cobler, 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 … amongst the women, is hideously ape-like.
1859. Mill, Lib., 106. Any other faculty than the apelike one of imitation.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., IV. iii. 101. I know this man well: he hath bene since an Ape-bearer.
a. 1613. Overbury, Char., Wks. (1856), 151 (T.). There is nothing in the earth so pittifull, 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 Apeward ‘for nout þat I knowe.’
c. 1230. Ancr. R., 248. Ne mei he buten scheawe þe uorð sumwhat of his apeware.
