What does apache mean?
Apache denotes both a people and a language. The Apache are a group of culturally related Native American peoples of the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico, including the Chiricahua, Mescalero, Jicarilla, and Western Apache; their languages belong to the Southern Athabaskan branch of the Na-Dene family. The word entered European languages via Spanish, ultimately borrowed from a neighboring indigenous language, likely Yavapai. In everyday English today the term appears most often in phrases like 'Apache helicopter,' named after the people. A now-dated secondary sense, popular around the turn of the twentieth century, applied the word to rough street criminals of Paris, whom French journalists likened to the warriors of the American frontier; this usage survives mainly in the name of the theatrical 'apache dance.' When writing about the people themselves, capitalize the term, and prefer 'the Apache' as the collective form over the pluralized 'Apaches.'
A member of a group of Southwestern Native American peoples, or one of the Southern Athabaskan languages they speak.
"She studied the Mescalero Apache language at the university."
Capitalized when naming the people or the language.
(Historical) A violent street gangster in Paris, especially in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
"The police swept the boulevards, rounding up every apache they could find."
Lowercase in this sense; now chiefly historical.
For the people, modern style prefers the collective 'the Apache' over 'Apaches'; the plural remains standard for the historical Parisian sense.
"Several apaches were arrested after the barroom brawl."
Early-1900s Parisian street thugs were so fierce that journalists nicknamed them 'Apaches' — and their brutal partner dance became the famous 'apache dance.'
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of apache
English borrowed 'Apache' from Spanish 'apaches,' which itself took the name from a neighboring indigenous people — most sources point to Yavapai — where it may derive from a word meaning 'enemy' or 'people.' The Spanish adopted it in the colonial Southwest during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and English writers picked it up as Anglo-American settlement pushed into the region. In the early twentieth century, French newspapers transferred the name to Parisian street gangs, producing the separate lowercase sense and the 'apache dance'; that usage has since faded into history.
Related word forms
How apache is actually used
When referring to the people or language, it is normally capitalized ('the Apache', 'speaks Apache'); when used as a common noun for a Parisian gangster, it is lowercase and largely historical. As with all ethnonyms, 'the Apache' is preferred over dated plural forms such as 'Apaches' when discussing the people collectively.
Easily confused with apache
'Apish' means resembling an ape or foolishly imitative, while 'Apache' refers to a member of a Native American people or, historically, a Parisian gangster.