Apache
UK[əˈpætʃi]US[əˈpætʃi]
n
A member of a group of Indigenous peoples of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico.
n
Any of the Athabaskan languages of the Apache peoples.
n
(lowercase, informal) A violent street ruffian, especially in Paris in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Etymology
The term 'Apache' entered English via Spanish colonial sources in the 17th century. Its ultimate origin is the Zuni word 'a·paču', which was used to refer to the Navajo and related neighboring peoples, essentially meaning "enemy." Spanish adopted it as 'Apachu' or 'Apache' to designate these specific Indigenous groups. The word's journey from a Zuni exonym (a name given by outsiders) to a widely adopted ethnonym in European languages illustrates how colonial contact shaped the naming of peoples. The later, entirely separate usage for a Parisian criminal derives from a sensationalized 1902 French play titled "Les Apaches," which drew a metaphorical comparison between the gang's violence and stereotypical European perceptions of Apache warrior culture.
Analysis
The word 'Apache' is a loanword from Spanish, which itself borrowed it from a Zuni word meaning "enemy" or "stranger." It functions as a proper noun (ethnonym) and, by extension, a common noun.
Examples
Geronimo was a prominent leader of the Chiricahua Apache.
She is working to preserve the Apache language.
In early 20th-century Paris, the police battled gangs known as apaches.