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A·pach·e (ə-păchē)
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n. pl. Apache or A·pach·es
1. A member of a Native American people inhabiting the southwest United States and northern Mexico. Various Apache tribes offered strong resistance to encroachment on their territory in the latter half of the 19th century. Present-day Apache populations are located in Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.
2. Any of the Apachean languages of the Apache.

[American Spanish, probably from Zuni ʔaapaču, pl. of paču, Navajo.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
a·pache (ə-păsh, ä-päsh)
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n. pl. a·paches (ə-păsh, ä-päsh)
A member of the Parisian underworld.

[French apache, Apache, ruffian, from English APACHE.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.