choppy

Etymology

It is formed from English chop + -y.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The OED and the Shorter Oxford derive it from the noun chop in the sense "crack, cleft" (a variant of chap),^[2][4][3] and give the sense of a rough sea the same origin;^[2][4] Etymonline instead derives the sea sense from the verb chop, to shift quickly,^[7] and the American Heritage Dictionary treats the two adjectives separately.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Full of cracks or clefts, chapped: in Shakespeare's Macbeth (her choppy finger), dated 1605 by Merriam-Webster^[3] and before 1616 by the OED, from the text printed in 1623.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined it as full of holes, clefts or cracks, from the same Macbeth passage;^[9] that sense is now rare.^[4] The sense of the sea, running in short, broken waves, appears in the 19th century: 1830 in Etymonline, which notes that chopping was used earlier (1630s),^[7] and 1867 in the OED.^[2] From there the word was transferred to anything that moves or changes by fits and starts: from 1922 it is recorded for "suggestive of chopping",^[2] and Merriam-Webster gives senses for ground or a career full of ups and downs, for jerky movement, and for disconnected writing.^[10][3]

Timeline

• 1605 – full of cracks, chapped, in Macbeth.^[3][2]
• 1830 – of the sea, running in short, broken waves.^[7] The OED's first record is from 1867.^[2]
• 1922 – suggestive of chopping; jerky.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a stretch of water, full of short, broken waves; rough: The ferry crossed a choppy sea.^[11][10][3]
2. Marked by abrupt changes; jerky or disconnected: choppy prose.^[11][10][3]
3. Full of ups and downs: choppy country.^[10][3]
4. (rare) Full of cracks; chapped.^{[10][3][2][4]}

Word family

• choppily
• choppiness

Related words

• chop
• chap
• chopping

Usage notes

The OED, Merriam-Webster and the American Heritage Dictionary also record a separate choppy used of the wind, changeable or veering, from the verb chop "to shift, change", first recorded in 1865;^{[2][3][10][11]} the Shorter Oxford adds a figurative sense, unstable or vacillating.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin