More monkey business

August 27th, 2009 at 07:00am Barry Wood

As a verb, “ape” means “to imitate or mimic” — along the lines of “monkey see, monkey do.”

The word, for “any gibbon or great ape” or “loosely, any Old or New World monkey,” comes from the Old English “apa,” which is of Germanic origin.

As applied to people, “ape” the noun also can be someone “who is uncouth, gross, clumsy, etc.”

To “go ape” is slang for “to become mad” or “to become wildly enthusiastic.”

And “apish,” in addition to “like an ape,” can mean “imitative in an unreasoning way” or “silly, affected, mischievous, etc.”

However, an “apiary” is not a monkey house, it’s a beehive. That “api-” comes from the Latin for bee, “apis.”

If you go monkeying with an apiary, you’re likely to get stung.

Entry Filed under: definitions, idiom, word origins