lisp

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English wlispen, also lispen and lipse,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English *wlispian, recorded only in the prefixed verb āwlyspian (“to lisp”),^[5][4][6][7] from the adjective wlisp (“lisping”), also wlips.^[5][8][7] The adjective goes back to Proto-Germanic *wlispaz (“lisping”), with a cognate in Old High German lisp (“stammering”) and others in Middle Dutch and in the dialects of Norway.^[9] Orel takes it as imitative.^[9] Most dictionaries regard the word as imitative,^{[4][10][7][11][12]} and compare Middle Low German wlispen, Dutch lispen, lispen (“to trip in speaking, to lisp”), German lispeln, Swedish läspa and Danish læspe.^[5][4][10] Etymonline takes the form without w- as a late 14th-century alteration of wlisp,^[10] and Weekley compares whisper.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

To speak with a lisp: the verb is recorded in an Old English gloss,^[5] and Barnhart dates the Old English form to before 1100.^[4] Middle English wlispen is first found in the Ancrene Riwle (about 1230),^[2] or before 1225 in Barnhart.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the verb could also mean to stammer, and once to make a hissing sound.^[2] Chaucer used it twice, as lipsed, of the Friar in the Canterbury Tales.^[14][15] Etymonline notes that lisping suggested effeminacy from the 14th century.^[10] The transitive use, to say something with a lisp, dates from 1627 in the OED (the 1610s in Etymonline),^[5][10] and with it came the extended sense of speaking imperfectly or childishly, in the 17th century;^[5][10] Pope's line "I lisp'd in numbers, for the numbers came" uses it of a child's first verses.^[13] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as speaking with the tongue striking the teeth or palate too often, "like children".^[16] The noun, the act or habit of lisping, followed in the 17th century.^[5][10][3] From 1855, in Browning, it was also used of a sound like a lisp, such as rippling water or rustling leaves.^[5][8] In the Midlands to lisp a dog was to call it by breathing through the lips and smacking them together.^[17]

Timeline

• before 1100 – Old English, to speak with a lisp.^[5][4]
• c. 1230 – wlispen, to lisp or stammer, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[2]
• c. 1440 – the form lyspyn.^[4]
• 1627 – transitive, to utter with a lisp; to speak in a childlike way.^[5] Etymonline dates the transitive use to the 1610s.^[10]
• 1637 – noun, the act of lisping.^[5] Etymonline gives the 1620s, Merriam-Webster Unabridged about 1625.^[10][3]
• 1855 – noun, a sound like a lisp, as of rippling water.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pronounce s and z imperfectly, usually as the th sounds of thin and then: Some children lisp when they lose their front teeth.^[3][18][5]
2. To say something with a lisp: She lisped her name shyly.^[18][5]
3. To speak in a halting, childlike or imperfect way.^[18][5]

Noun

1. The pronunciation of s and z like th, as a speech defect or an affectation: He spoke with a slight lisp.^[3][18]
2. A sound like a lisp, such as the rustle of leaves or the ripple of water.^[3][5][8]

Word family

• lisper
• lispingly
• unlisping

Related words

• whisper

Usage notes

Merriam-Webster Unabridged notes that the word itself is sometimes pronounced /ˈlɪθp/ in mockery.^[3] The programming language Lisp, recorded from 1959, is a separate word, formed from list processor or list processing.^[5][3][18]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
13. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
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. ^ 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)
18. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins