Jump to:

• apache
  apache

  noun

  a Parisian gangster, rowdy, or ruffian.
• Apache
  Apache

  noun

  a member of an Athabascan people of the southwestern United States.

apache

¹ American  

[uh-pahsh, uh-pash, a-pash] / əˈpɑʃ, əˈpæʃ, aˈpaʃ /

noun

plural

apaches

1. a Parisian gangster, rowdy, or ruffian.

---

Apache ² American  

[uh-pach-ee] / əˈpætʃ i /

noun

plural

Apaches,

plural

Apache

1. a member of an Athabascan people of the southwestern United States.

2. any of the several Athabascan languages of Arizona and the Rio Grande basin.

3. Military. a two-man U.S. Army helicopter designed to attack enemy armor with rockets or a 30mm gun and equipped for use in bad weather and in darkness.

---

adjective

1. of or relating to an Athabascan people of the southwestern United States or their language.

Apache ¹ British  

/ əˈpætʃɪ /

noun

1. a member of a North American Indian people, formerly nomadic and warlike, inhabiting the southwestern US and N Mexico

2. the language of this people, belonging to the Athapascan group of the Na-Dene phylum

---

apache ² British  

/ əˈpɑːʃ, apaʃ, -ˈpæʃ /

noun

1. a Parisian gangster or ruffian

---

Etymology

Origin of apache¹

1735–45, < French: Apache

Origin of Apache²

First recorded in 1915–20; from Mexican Spanish, perhaps from Zuni ʔa·paču “Navajos,” presumably applied formerly to the Apacheans (Navajos and Apaches) generally