chap

chap¹ crack in the skin

Etymology

The verb meaning to crack is inherited from Middle English chappen,^[4][5][6] of uncertain origin.^[5][7][8] The MED takes it as probably a variant of choppen, the source of chop,^[4] and Barnhart and Etymonline suggest the same, Etymonline comparing strap beside strop.^[7][6] It answers in sense to Middle Dutch cappen (“to chop, cut”), modern kappen, and to Low German kappen, Danish kappe and Swedish kappa, to cut,^[5][6][9] but the OED notes that the relation of these words to the English one is uncertain and that none of them is found in the earlier stage of its language;^[5] Hoad adds that the initial “ch” is unexplained.^[10] Merriam-Webster's Unabridged takes the English, Dutch and German words, with Alsatian kchapfe (“to chop up”), as probably from a prehistoric word shared by English, Dutch and German, itself borrowed from Vulgar Latin *cappō (“to castrate, cut, chop”), from an assumed Vulgar Latin noun for a capon, from Latin cāpō.^[2] Collins calls it probably Germanic,^[11] and Ayto thinks it is ultimately the same word as chop.^[1] The noun, a crack, is formed from the verb.^[5][7][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

To chop off: about 1325, in the romance Coer de Lyon, a sense now obsolete or dialectal.^[5] The sense "to split, crack" is first recorded in the Middle English translation of Palladius on husbandry, about 1420 in the OED and about 1440 in the MED, of fruit that bursts open.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

The OED notes that the sense development is not clear: the transitive use, as if "to cut the surface", ought to come first, but the record shows the intransitive "to crack, become fissured" (about 1420) before the transitive "to cause to crack" (about 1460).^[5] An early example is a shepherd's complaint in the Towneley plays that his fingers are "chappyd" with the cold,^[4] and Etymonline notes that the word usually refers to the effect of cold and heat on exposed parts of the body.^[6] The noun, a painful crack in the skin from frost or cold wind, is recorded earlier than the verb's cracking sense, before 1398 in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew's De Proprietatibus Rerum,^[5][7] and a crack in any surface from 1553.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it as "a cleft; an aperture; an opening; a gaping; a chink".^[12] In Scotland and the north of England the verb also meant to strike (1565), of a clock to strike the hour (1652) and to knock at a door (1774), with a noun chap, a knock (1786, in Burns);^[5][13] a Scots verb meaning to choose (1720) is perhaps a different word.^[5] In Yorkshire, Cheshire, Lincolnshire and other counties the verb was also said of ground that cracks in hot weather, often in the form chop.^[13] American slang has used chap since the late 1990s for "to be unsatisfactory", perhaps from the skin sense.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1325 – to chop off (now obsolete or dialect).^[5]
• before 1398 – noun, a crack in the skin, in Trevisa.^[5][7]
• c. 1420 – to crack, become fissured.^[5][4]
• c. 1460 – to cause to crack.^[5]
• 1553 – noun, a crack in a surface.^[5]
• 1565 – Scottish, to strike.^[5]
• 1652 – of a clock, to strike the hour.^[5]
• 1774 – to knock at a door.^[5]
• 1786 – noun, a knock, in Burns.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. Of the skin or lips, to become rough, sore and cracked, especially from cold or wind: His knuckles chap every winter.^[11][2][5]
2. To make the skin rough and cracked: The sea wind had chapped her cheeks.^[11][2][5]
3. (Scotland) To knock or strike; of a clock, to strike the hour.^[11][2][5]

Noun

1. A sore crack in the skin, usually in the plural.^[11][2][5]
2. A crack or open seam in a surface, such as dry ground.^[8][5]
3. (Scotland) A knock or blow.^[11][2][5]

Word family

• chapped
• unchapped

chap² jaw

Etymology

The jaw is of unknown origin.^{[10][8][15][9]} It is first found in the middle of the 16th century, while the variant chop is quoted from the Scottish poet Dunbar about 1500;^[5][10] the OED suggests it may come from the verb chap¹ or from the verb chop, to cut.^[5] Ayto takes it as probably a variant of chop, as in “lick one's chops”;^[1] the Oxford Dictionary of English also compares chops.^[15] Weekley proposed an alteration, under the influence of chop, of the northern dialect word chaft, of Scandinavian origin;^[16] the OED notes that this suits the sense but that no such sound change can be explained.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the plural, the jaws of an animal, especially of a beast of prey: 1555, in Richard Eden's translation of Peter Martyr's Decades.^[5][2] The singular, one of the jaws, follows in 1575, in Gascoigne's book on hunting.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) noted that the singular was hardly used except by anatomists, and defined the word as the upper or lower part of a beast's mouth.^[12] It has been applied to people contemptuously or humorously.^[5][8] From 1709 it also meant the side of the face, the cheek.^[5] The food sense, the lower half of a pig's cheek, as in Bath chaps, is recorded from 1870.^[5][1] By transfer the word named the jaws of a vice or similar tool (1678–1831) and the narrowing entrance of the English Channel (1720).^[5][8] In Scotland and northern England dialect chaps are the jaws or cheeks, and a chap is also a pig's cheek.^[13]

Timeline

• 1555 – plural, the jaws of an animal.^[5][2]
• 1575 – singular, one of the jaws.^[5]
• 1678 – the jaws of a vice or other tool (obsolete by 1831).^[5]
• 1709 – the side of the face, the cheek.^[5]
• 1720 – chaps of the Channel.^[5]
• 1870 – a pig's cheek as food, as in Bath chaps.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Usually in the plural: the jaws of an animal, or the flesh covering them; humorously, a person's jaws: The wolf licked its chaps.^[2][8][5]
2. The cheek, especially the lower part of a pig's cheek eaten as meat.^[8][5]
3. One of the jaws of a vice or clamping tool.^[2][8]

Word family

• chapfallen

chap³ fellow

Etymology

The fellow is short for chapman, a trader or purchaser.^{[5][2][10][9][7][6]} The longer word developed from Old English cēapman (“tradesman”), from cēap (“trade”), the source of cheap, and man.^[7][17] The change of sense from "customer" to "man, fellow" parallels that of customer,^[5][7] and Etymonline compares German Kunde (“customer; colloquially, fellow”).^[6] Green's Dictionary of Slang mentions an alternative proposal that links it with Romani chavo (“child”).^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

A buyer or customer: 1577 in Barnhart and Merriam-Webster's Unabridged,^[7][2] the 1570s in Etymonline and the late 16th century in the Shorter Oxford.^[6][8] The OED's earliest quotation for this sense is from 1701.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In the 18th century the word shifted from "buyer" to "person, lad, fellow":^[7][10] the OED records "a man, a fellow" from 1704, in a translation of Molière,^[5] and Etymonline from 1716, usually with an adjective before it.^[6] Henry Todd's revision of Johnson (1818) remarked that it usually named a person regarded with contempt.^[14] From 1818 it was a friendly form of address, often as old chap;^[5] from 1831 it also meant a woman's boyfriend; from 1833 it meant a boy, or in the American South and South Midland and in Irish English a child of either sex.^[5][2] From 1877 it was used of an animal or even a thing, often affectionately or ironically.^[5] The original sense "customer, dealer" lasted until the 19th century in Scotland,^[5] and in northern English dialect a chap was still a buyer: "can ye finnd me a chap for 't?", a Yorkshire speaker asks of some bacon.^[13] The diminutive chappie is from the 19th century and originally Scots.^[10][16]

Timeline

• 1577 – a buyer, customer.^[7][2]
• 1704 – a man, a fellow.^[5]
• 1716 – "lad, fellow", in Etymonline's dating.^[6]
• 1818 – a friendly form of address, old chap.^[5]
• 1831 – a boyfriend.^[5]
• 1833 – a boy; in some regions, a child.^[5]
• 1877 – of an animal or a thing.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (chiefly British, informal) A man or boy; a fellow: Her brother is a cheerful chap.^[2][8][5]
2. (chiefly British) A friendly form of address to a man or boy, often old chap.^[5]
3. (chiefly British) A boyfriend.^[5]
4. (Southern and South Midland US) A child or baby.^[2][5]
5. (dialect) A buyer or customer.^[2][8][13]

Word family

• chappie
• old chap