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kelp

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Etymology and origin of the English word kelp

Pronunciation

kelp1 seaweed

Confidence
Unknown
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1387 before 1387, Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon
Inherited from
Middle English culp

Etymology

The word for the seaweed is inherited from Middle English culp, also culpe, of unknown origin.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] The OED notes that the normal modern outcome of the Middle English form would be kilp, a spelling recorded in 1601, and that kelp is apparently a dialect variant of it, as with melt and milt.[2][5][9] Wiktionary suggests an unrecorded Old English *cylp and a link with Proto-Germanic *kulpiz (“lump”), with reference to the air bladders of some seaweeds,[1] but the dictionaries leave the origin open.[2][10][11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Large seaweeds collectively, as burnt for their ashes: before 1387, in John Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon.[2][5] Barnhart dates the form kelp to 1663,[5] Etymonline to the 1660s.[4]

Semantic evolution

The seaweed was valued mainly for its ashes, which were themselves called kelp from 1679 and were sold for the soda, iodine and other substances they contain.[2][3] Johnson (1755) defined it only as "a salt produced from calcined sea-weed", quoting Boyle on its use in making alum.[13] In the 19th century the word was applied specifically to the giant kelp of the Pacific coast of America, the largest of the seaweeds, recorded by Darwin in 1839;[2] Etymonline dates this use to 1834.[4] From 1712 to 1760 kelp was also a name for the saltworts Salsola and Salicornia.[2] A Kelper, from 1896, is a native or inhabitant of the Falkland Islands.[4]

Timeline

  • before 1387 – as culp, large seaweeds burnt for their ashes.[2][5]
  • 1601 – the spelling kilpe.[5]
  • 1663 – the spelling kelp.[5]
  • 1679 – the calcined ashes of seaweed.[2]
  • 1712 – a name for saltwort plants (obsolete by 1760).[2]
  • 1839 – the giant kelp of the American Pacific coast.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Any of various large brown seaweeds, especially of the order Laminariales and also of the Fucales: Otters drifted among the kelp off the point.[8][10][6]
  2. A mass or growth of such seaweeds.[10]
  3. The ashes of burnt seaweed, formerly a source of iodine, potash and soda.[8][10][2]

Word family

  • kelpfish
  • Kelper
  • giant kelp
  • kelp greenling
  • bladder kelp
  • kelp crab
  • kelp bass

kelp2 hat (thieves' cant)

Confidence
Unknown
First attested
1736 Ordinary of Newgate, his Account

Etymology

The cant word for a hat is of unknown origin according to the OED.[2] Green's Dictionary of Slang suggests the Turkish and Tatar felt cap called a calpac, and records the variant calp.[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

A hat: 1736, in the Ordinary of Newgate, his Account.[2]

Semantic evolution

The word belonged to the cant of 18th-century thieves: Green's Dictionary of Slang quotes John Poulter's Discoveries of 1753, in which one thief knocks a man's kelp off while another picks his pocket.[14] A verb kelp, to raise one's hat to someone, is recorded in James Hardy Vaux's vocabulary of flash language (1812, published 1819), and was still used in Sydney in 1843.[14][2] The OED marks both noun and verb as obsolete.[2]

Timeline

  • 1736 – noun, a hat.[2]
  • 1812 – verb, to raise one's hat to someone.[14]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (obsolete, thieves' cant) A hat.[2][14]

Verb

  1. (obsolete, thieves' cant) To raise one's hat to someone.[14][2]

Usage notes

In the dialects of northern England, kelp or kilp was also the iron hook in a chimney on which pots hang, in Cumberland a young crow, and in Worcestershire and Herefordshire the yelp of a dog.[15]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ a b c d e f Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  15. ^ 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)
Cite this entry

“Kelp.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/kelp. Accessed 13 Nov. 2026.

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