a, m. [A. S. apa; Erse apa; Bohem. op; Germ. affe; all of them dropping the initial guttural tenuis: Sanskr. kapi], an ape. It appears in early times in the metaph. sense of a fool in the old poem Hm. and even in a proverb; so also in the poems Fm. 11 and Gm. 34, vide Lex. Poët. A giant is in Edda (Gl.) called api, no doubt because of the stupid nature of the giants. Apavatn, a farm in Icel., probably got its name from a nickname of one of the settlers, at the end of the 9th century. In Hým. 20 a giant is called áttrunnr apa, the kinsman of apes. The passage in the Hm. verse 74 appears to be corrupt, and ought to be restored thus, margr verðr af aurum api, the fool of earthly things, cp. the passage in Sl. 34, margan hefir auðr apat, which is another version of the very same proverb. It is esp. used in the connection, ósvinns-api or ósviðra-api, a baboon, big fool, Gm. l. c., Fm. l. c.; (the passage in Hm. 123 ought perhaps to be restored to ósvinns-apa or ósvinnra-apa in a single word; the sense is no doubt the same in all these passages.) Rare in old prose in the proper sense of ape, vide however 673. 55.

COMPD: apamynd.