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bleep

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Etymology and origin of the English word bleep

Confidence
Established
Formation
Onomatopoeia
First attested
1953 New York Herald-Tribune

Pronunciation

Etymology

It is imitative of the sound.[2][3][4][5][6][7] The Shorter Oxford compares blip,[8] and Dictionary.com calls the word perhaps imitative and dates it to 1950–55.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A thin, high-pitched sound, especially one made by electronic equipment: 1953, in the New York Herald-Tribune,[7][3] at first of a Geiger counter, according to Etymonline.[2]

Semantic evolution

The word was soon associated with the signals of Sputnik, and the verb, to make such a sound, is first recorded in 1957, in The Times of 11 October, of the satellite.[2][7] From the late 1960s it named the sound edited over a word thought unfit for broadcast: Etymonline dates the noun in this sense to 1968[2][7] and the verb to 1964,[2] while Merriam-Webster dates the verb to 1968[3] and the OED to 1973, often as bleep out.[7] From there the word bleep itself came to stand in for a taboo word, from 1970 according to Merriam-Webster,[3] as in a bleep list of 1970 and phrases such as beat the bleep out of.[10] In the 1970s it was also used of the signal of a pager or bleeper, a word Etymonline dates to 1964: the noun from 1975 and the verb, to summon someone by a bleeper, from 1976.[7][2] The verb was also used from 1978 of sending information electronically.[7]

Timeline

  • 1953 – a thin, high-pitched electronic sound.[7][3][2]
  • 1957 – verb, to make such a sound, of Sputnik.[7][2]
  • 1964 – verb, to cover a word unfit for broadcast with a bleep, in Etymonline's dating;[2] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1968 and the OED to 1973.[3][7]
  • 1968 – noun, the sound edited over a taboo word.[7][2]
  • 1970 – used in place of a taboo word.[3][10]
  • 1975 – the signal of a pager.[7]
  • 1976 – verb, to summon someone with a bleeper.[7]
  • 1978 – verb, to send information electronically.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A short, high-pitched signal made by electronic equipment; a beep: The oven gave three bleeps when the bread was done.[6][3][7]
  2. The sound broadcast over an offensive word to censor it; also the word bleep said or written in its place.[7][3][8]
  3. A bleeper or pager.[6][7]

Verb

  1. To make a short, high-pitched electronic sound.[6][7]
  2. To replace offensive words in a broadcast or recording with a bleep, often with out: The station bleeped out every curse in the interview.[3][7]
  3. To call someone by means of a bleeper; to page.[6][7]

Interjection

  1. Used in place of an expletive.[3][10]

Word family

  • bleeper
  • blip

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  10. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
Cite this entry

“Bleep.” Etymologically, 2 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/bleep. Accessed 2 Nov. 2026.

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