Affe

See also: affé

German

Etymology

From Middle High German affe, from Old High German affo, from Proto-West Germanic *apō, from Proto-Germanic *apô. The sense of drunkenness has been traced to the late 18^th century, allegedly playing on the homophony of Czech opice (“monkey or ape”) and opít se (“to get drunk”), though the image of a monkey being a possessing demon is translingual, and thus Spanish mona (“she-ape”) also means drunkenness, Spanish mono (“he-ape”) withdrawal symptoms, English monkey a drug addiction.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈafə]

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

Affe m (weak, genitive Affen, plural Affen, diminutive Äffchen n or Äfflein n, feminine (only for the animal) Äffin)

1. monkey or ape (male or female or of unspecified sex)
2. ellipsis of Fellaffe., a kind of furry military knapsack
3. (slang, regional) drunkenness, alcohol intoxication
   • 2018, Daniel Tomazic, Kuhnles Gesetz: Ein badischer Heimatkrimi aus dem Mittleren Westen, page 10:

     Da war er auf dem Weinfest und hat sich am Stand der lokalen Winzergenossenschaft, da gab es für Mitglieder alles umsonst, einen granatenmäßigen Affen angesoffen.

     There he was at the wine fair and got totally plastered at the stall of the local vintner association, where everything was free for members.

Declension

Declension of Affe [masculine, weak]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Affe	die	Affen
genitive	eines	des	Affen	der	Affen
dative	einem	dem	Affen	den	Affen
accusative	einen	den	Affen	die	Affen

Derived terms

• Affenbrotbaum
• Affenente
• Berberaffe
• Inselaffe
• Klammeraffe
• Lackaffe
• Maulaffe
• Menschenaffe (more precise term for “ape”)
• nachäffen
• Rhesusaffe

Further reading

• “Affe” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Affe” in Duden online
• “Affe” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• Affe on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de

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Pennsylvania German

Noun

Affe

1. plural of Aff