apis

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[edit] Catalan

[edit] Noun

apis m. pl.

  1. Plural of api.

[edit] Crimean Tatar

[edit] Noun

apis

  1. prison

[edit] Declension

[edit] Synonyms


[edit] Latin

apis (a bee)

[edit] Alternative spellings

[edit] Etymology

Uncertain. Possibly of Ancient Egyptian origin, where in hieroglyphs it was rendered as bj.t (honey bee) (.t is common Afro-Asiatic feminine postfix). PIE root *bʰi- reconstructible from Germanic and Balto-Slavic evidence gave Old English bēo (English bee), but would have entered the Latin then as the reduced form /af/ from /?fj/. Alternatively, one can assume modification of initial obstruent due to a taboo (common for PIE flora). Other theories speculate on Osco-Umbrian borrowing, from an original *akuis (confer Latin aqui- in aquifolius, aquilinus; Osco-Umbrian reflex of PIE labiovelar */kʷ/ that gives Latin /qu/ is regularly /p/).

[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Noun

apis (genitive apis); f, third declension

  1. A bee.
    • 2 BCOvid, Ars Amatoria, book I
      aut ut apēs saltusque suos et olentia nactae / pascua per flōrēs et thyma summa volant
      or as the bees, when they have found plants to plunder of their honey, hover hither and thither among the thyme and the flowers

[edit] Inflection

Number Singular Plural
nominative apis apēs
genitive apis apium
dative apī apibus
accusative apem apēs 1
ablative ape apibus
vocative apis apēs

1 May also be apīs.

[edit] Derived terms

[edit] Descendants

[edit] See also

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