ἄπα <Egyptian; Roman period>
👉 ἄπα and ἀπᾶ (indecl.) m. – ‘father (of a monk and as a title of respect given to priests and bishops), abbot’ (Oasis d’Égypte 36,49.5: 4th c. CE; P.Lond. 1914.1 and 34: 4th c. CE; SEG 8 671, 678, 693: 4th-5th c. CE; etc.).
⚠ The word was used only in Christian inscriptions and papyri in Egypt.
🅔 A Coptic LW – Coptic (Sahidic, Sub-Achminic, Bohairic, Fayyumic) ⲁⲡⲁ ‘father (a title of respect given to saints, martyrs and dignitaries of the Church), abbot’, cf. Coptic (Sahidic, Bohairic) ⲁⲃⲃⲁ ‘id.’. It is a reborrowing; the Coptic word comes from Greek ἀββᾶς m. (gen., dat., voc. ἀββᾶ, acc. ἀββᾶν) ‘father (of a monk), abbot’, which, for its part, is an Aramaic LW – Old and Official Aramaic ʾb ‘father, ancestor’, Biblical Aramaic ʾaḇ ‘id.’, Jewish Aramaic ʾāḇ, ʾabbā ‘id.’, Syriac ʾabbā ‘father’, etc. The evidence as a whole speaks against a contrary view that Coptic ⲁⲡⲁ is a borrowing from Greek ἄπα. Cf. ἀββα and ἀββᾶς.
📖 Data: CD: 13; CDO: s.v. ⲁⲃⲃⲁ and ⲁⲡⲁ; DJBA: 72f.; DJPA: 31f.; DNWSI: 1-3; HALOT: 1805f.; KH: 10; SL: 1. Ref.: cf. DELC: 3f. and 14; Förster 2002: 69; Spiegelberg 1927: 47f.