Daft Apeth - provenance query?

[otk]

With the other Daft threads, it got me thinking where does Daft Apeth come from? Is it a reference to our ape ancestors, or perhaps, Daft Ha'penny?

I daresay someone on NSC will come up trumps

 

[soistes]

It's short for daft ha'penny worth

 

[Box of Frogs]

One of my late Nan's favourite sayings.

According to the urban dictionary:

Daft Apeth

A Northern (specifically lancastrian) term for a fool, roughly equivalent to the modern term 'muppet'

not really and insult, almost a term of endearment

Pronounced like 'a-peth' (longish A)

Origin: Shortening of a daft 'alfpenny.

 

[soistes]

as in
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ha'porth

 

[otk]

Thanks for the succinct and informative replies

 

[Norman Potting]

...Once people used to flick through dictionaries so that they could snigger at the rude words. Now we have t'interweb. Are we sure that this is what Mr Berner Lee had in mine