gulp

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English gulpen,^[2][3][4] probably borrowed from Middle Dutch gulpen (“to swallow, guzzle”),^[5][6][7][8] itself of imitative origin.^[5][6][7][8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged leaves the source open between Middle Dutch and Middle Low German,^[9] and Barnhart names Flemish or Dutch, West Flemish gulpen and Dutch gulpen (“to gush, pour forth, guzzle, swallow”).^[10] The OED, Klein, Partridge and Weekley instead treat the English verb as imitative in its own right, only comparing the Dutch one,^{[11][3][12][13]} and Etymonline allows a native coinage or a loan.^[14] Barnhart adds East Frisian Low German gulpen and Danish gulpe as cognates,^[10] and the OED and the MED compare Swedish glupsk (“voracious”).^[11][2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Klein also connect Old English gielpan (“to boast”), the source of yelp.^[9][3] The noun, recorded later, comes from the verb,^[11][6][14] though Barnhart and Etymonline allow Flemish gulpe as a source of it.^[10][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

To gulp down drink, in Piers Plowman: Til glotoun hadde ygulpid a galoun & a gille (A text, composed before 1376, in a manuscript of about 1400).^[2] Barnhart also dates the participle before 1376,^[10] and the OED, which cites later manuscripts of the same passage, has it from before 1500.^[11] Other versions of the poem have golped, glowpyd and iglobbed.^[2][15]

Semantic evolution

Barnhart regards the Piers Plowman forms as isolated: the sense "to swallow eagerly" is not recorded again until 1542, and the record picks up in 1530 with "to gasp or choke while drinking", in Palsgrave.^[10] From the 17th century the verb was used figuratively, first of swallowing things up and then of holding back feeling as if by swallowing it.^[11] The noun took the same path from the act of swallowing (1568) to the amount swallowed (1611), and Johnson (1755) defined it only as much as can be swallowed at once.^[11][16] The sense "an effort to swallow, or its sound" is recorded only from the later 19th century.^[11][6]

Timeline

• before 1376 – ygulpid, gulped down (drink).^[2][10]
• 1530 – to gasp or choke, as when drinking in large draughts.^[11][10]
• 1568 – noun, the act of gulping, as goulpe.^[11][10] Etymonline dates it to the 1560s.^[14]
• 1611 – noun, as much as is swallowed at once, in Cotgrave.^[11]
• before 1625 – to swallow up, devour, figuratively.^[11]
• before 1644 – to hold in or stifle, later also gulp back.^[11]
• 1873 – noun, an effort to swallow, or the noise of it.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To swallow food or drink quickly and in large amounts, often with down: He gulped down his soup and ran for the bus.^{[9][17][8][7]}
2. To hold back as if by swallowing, usually with back: She gulped back her tears at the graveside.^{[8][17][11][7]}
3. To swallow air or gasp audibly, as from nerves or surprise: The boy gulped and looked at the broken window.^[17][8][7]
4. To take in eagerly or absorb, often with down.^[9][11]

Noun

1. An act of gulping: He finished the lemonade in one gulp.^[9][17][8]
2. The amount taken in one large swallow; a mouthful.^[9][17][11]
3. A spasmodic action of the throat as in swallowing, or the sound it makes.^[9][11]

Word family

• gulper
• gulpingly
• gulpy

Related words

• yelp

Usage notes

In dialect, gulp also meant the young of an animal, or a fledgling, in Lincolnshire and East Anglia, and a short, thick person or a big, unwieldy child in Angus and Lincolnshire.^[18] The OED has a separate obsolete noun gulp, "impact, shock", known from one quotation of 1598, perhaps from Spanish golpe (“blow”).^[11]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
15. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
18. ^ 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)