apis

Meaning

a bee

Concepts

bee

🐝

honeybee

🐝

honey bee

drone

honey-bee

wasp

Synonyms

Apis mellifera

Translations

Biene

🐝

abeja

🐝

ape

🐝

abeille

🐝

abelha

🐝

μέλισσα

abella

🐝

bij

arı

🐝

honingbij

🐝

نحلة

🐝

abelha

نَحْلَة

hing

Pronounced as (IPA)

[ˈa.pɪs]

Etymology

Uncertain. Any connection with Proto-Indo-European *bʰey-, which gave instead fūcus (“drone”), is phonetically impossible. Traditionally hypothesized as from Proto-Indo-European *e/a(m)p-i- (“stinging insect; bee”), related to German Imme (“bee; swarm of bees”), Old English imbe and Ancient Greek ἐμπίς (empís, “a stinging or biting insect”). However, it has characteristics of a European substrate word.
According to Vennemann’s Atlantic substrate theory, the ultimate source may be a Semitic word cognate with Egyptian ꜥfj (“bee”), though no attested Semitic cognates survive. De Vaan finds this plausible. Another hypothesis suggests an Osco-Umbrian loan from an original *akuis (“sharp, stinging”), as the Osco-Umbrian reflex of Proto-Indo-European labiovelar */kʷ/ that gives Latin ⟨qu⟩ is regularly /p/; compare aqui- (“sharp”) in aquifolius, aquilinus.