cheap

Pronunciation

• IPA: /tʃiːp/^[1]

Etymology

It is a shortening of the Middle English phrase good chepe “a good bargain, a good price”,^[2][3][4] formed after Old French à bon marché “at a good market”.^[3][5] The noun is inherited from Middle English chep (“bargain, barter, price”),^[2] inherited from Old English ċēap (“trade, barter, purchase; market”),^[5][2] from Proto-West Germanic *kaupu,^[3] based on an early Germanic borrowing of Latin caupō (“small trader, innkeeper”).^[5][3][4] Old Frisian kāp, Old High German kouf (German kaufen “to buy”) and Old Norse kaup “bargain” are from the same source.^[5][2] It is related to chap and chapman.^[6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Low-priced, inexpensive: 1509 in the OED, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster,^[7][2][8] and about 1500 in Etymonline.^[5] Good chep is from about 1280, and the surname Godchep from 1166.^[2] Old English cēap “trade, purchase” is from about 725, in Beowulf.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The sense went from “a barter, a purchase” to “a purchase as rated by the buyer”, and then to “inexpensive”.^[5] In Old English “low in price” was undēore, “un-dear”, while dēop cēap “deep cheap” meant a high price.^[5] Cēap also meant “market”, a sense surviving in place names such as Cheapside and Eastcheap.^[5][6] “Lightly esteemed, common” is from the 1590s, as with Latin vīlis.^[5] On the cheap is from 1859.^[5] A cheap shot was first American football jargon for a late or unfair hit, and was extended to politics by 1968.^[5] Cheap at the price means well worth having whatever it costs.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English cēap, trade.^[2]
• 1166 – the surname Godchep.^[2]
• c. 1280 – good chep.^[2]
• 1509 – inexpensive.^[7][2]
• 1590s – common, of little value.^[5]
• 1859 – on the cheap.^[5]
• 1968 – cheap shot in politics.^[5]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Low in price; inexpensive.
2. Charging low prices: a cheap hotel.
3. Of poor quality; shoddy.
4. Achieved with little effort: a cheap victory.
5. Unwilling to spend money; stingy.
6. Contemptible; vulgar.

Adverb

1. At a low price.

Word family

• cheaply
• cheapness
• cheapish
• cheapishly
• cheapie
• cheapo
• cheapen

Related words

• chap
• chapman
• cheapskate

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster