Etymologically
Log in

beep

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 13:42. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

Etymology

It is imitative,[2][3][4][5][6] originally of the sound of one type of car horn, one of several that came into use after the klaxon appeared about 1910.[7] Barnhart likewise describes it as formed in English in imitation of a horn, especially a car horn.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

An interjection imitating a car horn, 1927;[7] as a noun, the sound of a car horn, 1929.[8][9][10]

Semantic evolution

The word was soon extended from car horns to any short, high-pitched electronic signal, as from radar tracking, an echo-sounder or other devices.[8][9][4] The verb followed in 1936, first transitive, to sound a horn;[3][8][10] the intransitive use, of a device giving out beeps, dates from 1958.[3] The noun beeper, a device that beeps, is recorded from 1946,[8] and since the 1990s beep has also meant to call someone by beeper.[11][12] In West and East African English it is used, since at least 2007, for calling a mobile phone and hanging up at once, as a request to be called back.[3] In American slang a beep has also been a homing or tracking device.[13]

Timeline

  • 1927 – interjection imitating a car horn.[7]
  • 1929 – noun, the sound of a car horn.[8][9][10]
  • 1936 – verb, to sound a horn, in O. Nash.[3][8]
  • 1946 – beeper.[8]
  • 1951 – the current OED's first quotation for the noun, in A. C. Clarke's Sands of Mars.[3]
  • 1958 – verb, of a device, to give out beeps.[3]
  • 1994 – to call someone on a pager.[12]
  • 2007 – in African English, to ring a mobile phone and hang up.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A short, usually high-pitched sound used as a signal or warning, as from a horn or an electronic device: The microwave gave three beeps when the soup was ready.[14][11][3]
  2. A message sent to a pager.[12][1]

Verb

  1. To sound a horn: Taxis beeped at the stalled bus.[14][3]
  2. To make a beep.[11][14]
  3. To cause something, such as a horn, to sound.[11][14][3]
  4. To call, summon or warn someone by means of a beeper.[11][14]
  5. (West and East Africa) To ring someone's mobile phone and hang up at once, as a request to be called back.[3]

Word family

  • beeper

Usage notes

In New York City Beep is also a nickname for a borough president, modelled on veep.[15][16] Hendrickson dates it to 1980,[15] but Popik found it in a Brooklyn College student newspaper in 1952.[16]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  9. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  11. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  12. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  13. ^ Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
  14. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  15. ^ a b Hendrickson, Robert (2008), The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, 4th ed., New York: Facts on File
  16. ^ a b Popik, Barry, The Big Apple, barrypopik.com, p. "Beep [Borough President]", 12 July 2004