About Ap (water)

Ap is the Vedic Sanskrit term for "water", which in Classical Sanskrit only occurs in the plural āpas, whence Hindi āp. The term is from PIE hxap "water". The Indo-Iranian word also survives as the Persian word for water, āb, e.g. in Punjab. In archaic ablauting contractions, the laryngeal of the PIE root remains visible in Vedic Sanskrit, e.g. pratīpa- "against the current", from *proti-hxp-o-. In Tamil, Ap means water, and has references in poetry.