ape vs coon

ape

noun
  • An uncivilized person. 

  • Any such primate other than a human. 

  • A primate of the clade Hominoidea, generally larger than monkeys and distinguished from them by having no tail. 

  • One who apes; a foolish imitator. 

verb
  • To imitate or mimic, particularly to imitate poorly. 

  • To behave like an ape. 

adj
  • Wild; crazy. 

coon

noun
  • A black person. 

  • A member of a colorfully dressed dance troupe in Cape Town during New Year celebrations. 

  • A black person who "plays the coon"; that is, who plays the dated stereotype of a black fool for an audience, particularly including Caucasians. 

  • A coonass; a white Acadian French person who lives in the swamps. 

  • A raccoon. 

verb
  • To crawl while straddling, especially in crossing a creek. 

  • To fish by noodling, by feeling for large fish in underwater holes. 

  • To play the dated stereotype of a black fool for an audience, particularly including Caucasians. 

  • To traverse by crawling, as a ledge. 

  • To hunt raccoons. 

How often have the words ape and coon occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )