𐰯𐰀

apa

Meaning:
ancestor, forefather
In modern Turkish languages, words of this form connote various terms of relationship abound with meanings as various as (1) ‘ancestor’; (2) ‘grandfather’; (3) ‘grandmother’; (4) ‘father’; (5) ‘mother’; (6) ‘paternal uncle’; (7) ‘paternal aunt’; (8) ‘elder brother’; (9) ‘elder sister’; (10) (presumably metaph.) ‘midwife’.
Alternative spellings:
اَبا
Related:
𐱃𐰀 [ata] 𐰴𐰭 [kaŋ]

In modern languages

Select a region to see the cognate.
Language Cognate
Turkmen No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Turkish (Azerbaijan) aba
Turkish (Türkiye) abla*
Salar No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Gagauz No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Crimean No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Uyghur apa*
Uzbek opa*
Kazakh apa*
Nogai No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Siberian Tatar No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Kyrgyz apa*
Altai aba*
Alan aba*
Kumyk abay*
Tatar apa*
Bashkir apay*
Tıva ava*
Khakas aba
Sakha (Yakut, Dolgan) No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Khalaj No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Chuvash No cognate has been entered for this language yet.

* Meaning shifted

Examples

No corpus links yet.

Translations

German:
Vorfahre, Urvater
Russian:
предок, родоначальник
Turkish (Azerbaijan):
ata-baba, əcdad
Turkish (Türkiye):
ata, atalar

  • Gerard Clauson (1972) An etimological dictionary of pre-thirteenth-century Turkish p. 5
    aba:/1 apa:/ebe:/epe: words of this form, connoting various terms of relationship abound in modern Turkish languages with meanings as various as (1) ‘ancestor’; (2) ‘grandfather’; (3) ‘grandmother’; (4) ‘father’; (5) ‘mother’; (6) ‘paternal uncle’; (7) ‘paternal aunt’; (8) ‘elder brother’; (9) ‘elder sister’; (10) (presumably metaph.) ‘midwife’. Some, e.g. aba: ‘paternal uncle’, an abbreviation of Mong. abaga, and other words beginning ab . . ., etc. are certainly foreign; others, often occurring in only one language group, are of unknown origin. The only early forms seem to be Türkü, etc. apa: ‘ancestor’ and Oğuz ebe: ‘mother’. Kaş. does not record the former, but it occurs in KB. In this early period it is often impossible to be sure whether the vowels are back or front and the consonant voiced or unvoiced; the following are the likeliest transcriptions. Türkü viii eçü:m apa:m ‘my ancestors’ I E 1, II E 3; I E 13, II E 12; eçü:miz apa:mız I E 19; Ongin 1; apa: also occurs as an element in P.N.s, possibly as a title, e.g. apa: tarxan T 34; this phr. occurs in Chinese refces. to the Türkü and seems to be interpreted as ‘commander-in-chief’, see Liu Mau-tsai, Die chinesischen Nachrichten zur Geschichte der Ost-Türken, T’u-küe, index, s.v. A-po-ta-kan: Uyğ. viii ff. Man. (the god Zurvan who is) eçesi (sic ?) apası ‘the ancestor’ (of all the other gods) M I 22, 3 (ii): Civ. Tartış apam possibly ‘my ancestor Tartış’ USp. 12, 2: Tibetan (sic) xi PU aba: al-ab ‘father’ Kaş. I 86 (said to be an Arabic l.-w., with an absurd pseudo-historical explanation; ‘father’ in Tibetan is a-p'a): Xak. xi KB ajunka apa enmişinde berü ‘since our ancestors came down to earth’ 219; apa oğlanı ‘ancestors and their descendants’ 1386, 1732, 1922, 1958, etc.; apa yazdı erse ‘if an ancestor has sinned’ 3520; a.o. 3522 (evin): Çağ. PU ebe cadd, ‘ancestor’ (and in Rūmi, zan-i qābila ‘midwife’); apa (‘with -p-’) xwāhar-i buzurg ‘elder sister’, also called eğeçi (Mong. l.-w.) San. 27v. 5; ebem kömeci a plant called panīrak and nān-i kulāğ in Pe. and xubbāzī in Ar., ‘the round-leafed mallow’ do. 27v. 15: Oğuz xi ebe: al-umm ‘mother’, pronounced with -p- by the Karluk Türkmen Kaş. I 86: Kıp. xiv ebe: al-umm wa aṣluhu li’l-cadda wa yuqāl li’l-umm ‘alā ṭarīqi’l-taḥannun originally ‘female ancestor’, used for ‘mother’ as a term of respect İd. 7; ebem eçkisin koştu: qaws quzaḥ ‘rainbow’ (lit. ‘my mother has collected her goats’) İd. 7; Bul. 3, 1: xv cadda (dede in margin) ebe Tuh. 11a. 11: Osm. xiv ff. ebe; in xiv and xv ebe seems to mean ‘grandmother’ TTS I 252; II 357, by xviii it meant ‘midwife’ (see Çağ.); it is also noted in one or two phr. including ebem gömeçi II 358; IV 274.