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bop

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English has two words spelled bop: one meaning to hit, which is imitative, and one for a style of jazz, a shortening of bebop.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

bop1 to hit; a blow

Etymology

The verb meaning to hit is imitative of the sound of a blow.[5][1][2][6][3] Green's Dictionary of Slang derives it from the Kentish dialect verb bop, to throw something down with a loud noise, which it calls ultimately onomatopoeic;[7] the OED and the Shorter Oxford treat that dialect verb as the first sense of the same word.[5][3] Dictionary.com takes it as a variant of bob.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To throw something down with a resounding noise, in Kentish dialect: 1887, in Parish and Shaw's Dictionary of the Kentish Dialect,[5] also recorded by Wright for Kent.[9]

Semantic evolution

The sense "to hit" is American in origin.[7][5] Green's earliest record is from a Tulsa newspaper of 1915 ("boped on bean", to be hit on the head),[7] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1928,[1] and the OED and Etymonline to 1931, in Damon Runyon.[5][6] The noun, a blow, followed: 1932 in Merriam-Webster and Green,[1][7] 1934 in Etymonline.[6] The OED also has a noun bop meaning a popping sound, from 1937, in Hemingway.[5] From the late 1950s, in American slang, a bop was a member of a teenage street gang or a fight between such gangs, and to go bopping was to look for a fight;[7] the OED dates the sense "to fight" to 1958.[5]

Timeline

  • 1887 – to throw down with a resounding noise (Kentish dialect).[5][3]
  • 1915 – to hit (American).[7] Merriam-Webster dates this sense to 1928, the OED to 1931.[1][5]
  • 1932 – noun, a blow.[1][7]
  • 1937 – noun, a popping sound.[5]
  • 1958 – to fight.[5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (informal) To hit or strike, especially with the fist or a club: She bopped her brother on the head with a pillow.[1][2][5]

Noun

  1. (informal) A blow or punch.[1][2][7]

bop2 jazz style

Etymology

The jazz style is probably a shortening from English bebop,[5][1][3][10][11] or of rebop;[6] bebop itself is imitative of a two-note phrase typical of the music.[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bebop: Merriam-Webster dates the noun to 1947,[1] the OED and Etymonline to 1948, in the journal Language.[5][6] The verb, to play bop, is in the OED from 1947.[5]

Semantic evolution

The music had its own slang, fashionable in the United States in the early 1950s, and Etymonline cites a list of bop talk published by Life magazine in 1952, with words such as crazy, cool, dig and hipster.[6] From the music the verb came to mean to dance to popular music: from 1952 in Merriam-Webster, which also has to go quickly,[1] 1956 in Etymonline,[6] and 1979 in the OED.[5] The noun likewise came to mean a dance, or a party for dancing to pop music, from 1960.[5][3] In informal use, a bop is now a session of dancing.[10]

Timeline

  • 1947 – noun, bebop; verb, to play bop.[1][5]
  • 1948 – noun, in the journal Language.[5][6]
  • 1952 – verb, to dance to such music; to go quickly.[1]
  • 1960 – noun, a dance or party with dancing to pop music.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Bebop, a style of jazz of the 1940s with complex harmony and rhythm and usually fast tempos.[10][1][5]
  2. (informal) A dance to pop music, or a party for such dancing: They went to the end-of-term bop.[10][5][3]

Verb

  1. (informal) To dance to popular music.[10][1][5]
  2. To play or sing bop.[5][3]
  3. (informal) To go somewhere quickly or casually: He bopped over to the shop for milk.[1]

Word family

  • bopper
  • boppish
  • hard bop

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  2. ^ a b c d e 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 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  10. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press