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Etymology and origin of the English word nap

English has three main words spelled nap: a short sleep, a native word; the raised surface of cloth, taken from Dutch or Low German; and a card game named after Napoleon.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

nap1 short sleep

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
Old English, Vespasian Psalter
Inherited from
Old English hnappian via Middle English

Etymology

The sleep is inherited from Middle English nappen (“to doze”), inherited from Old English hnappian (“to doze, sleep lightly”) (Mercian hneappian).[5][6][1] It is related to Old High German hnaffezan (“to doze”), which survives as dialectal German nafzen, and to Norwegian napp (“nap”).[6][7][2] The Old High German verb is an intensive formation from the same Germanic base,[8] but the further origin is unknown.[5][2][8] Weekley linked it with words for a quick closing of the eyes,[9] and Partridge thought it ultimately imitative.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

To sleep lightly or briefly, in the Vespasian Psalter, before 830;[6][8] in earlier use it could also be figurative.[8] An Old English Gospel says of the ten virgins of Matthew 25:5 that they all "hnappudon … & slepun".[9]

Semantic evolution

Weekley notes that the word was once more dignified than it is now.[9] A Middle English psalm translation says of the keeper of Israel that he "shal not nappen ne slepen", where the King James Version has "neither slumber nor sleep".[1][11] In Middle English it could also mean "be sleepy" or "be careless".[5][8] The noun, formed from the verb, appears about 1353,[6] and take a nap about 1400.[5] The phrase to catch someone napping, to find them off guard, is recorded from before 1576.[8] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as "slumber; a short sleep".[12]

Timeline

  • before 830 – hneappian, to doze (Vespasian Psalter).[6]
  • c. 1353 – the noun nappe, a short sleep.[6]
  • a1382 – transitive, to put to sleep (obsolete).[8]
  • c. 1400 – take a nap.[5]
  • a1576 – catch napping.[8]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To sleep for a short time, especially during the day; doze.
  2. To be off guard or unaware of danger, especially in catch someone napping.

Noun

  1. A short sleep, especially in the daytime: a nap after lunch.

Word family

  • catnap
  • naptime

nap2 surface of cloth

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1374, Exchequer Rolls of Scotland
Borrowed from
Middle Dutch noppe via Middle English

Etymology

The surface of cloth is inherited from Middle English noppe, probably borrowed from Middle Dutch noppe (“tuft of wool, nap”),[6][8][5] perhaps brought in by Flemish cloth-workers.[5][9] Hoad and the Oxford Dictionary of English connect it with noppen (“to trim the nap”).[2][13] It is related to Middle Low German noppe (“tuft of wool”) and Old English hnoppian (“to pluck”).[6][5][3] The OED allows that it may instead continue the related Old English element -hnoppa.[8] The spelling nap appears in 1589, perhaps influenced by Middle French nape (“tablecloth”).[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Woolly material shorn from the surface of cloth and used to stuff pillows and mattresses, 1374, in the Exchequer Rolls of Scotland; this sense was obsolete by 1780.[8] The raised layer of fibres on a fabric is recorded in 1440, in the Promptorium Parvulorum.[8][6]

Semantic evolution

From 1591, in Spenser, it described any soft, downy surface resembling the nap of cloth.[8] In the late 16th and 17th centuries it was used figuratively of wit,[8] and in American colloquial speech of the 1840s, to get one's nap up meant to lose one's temper.[8] From 1798 the word also refers to the direction in which the fibres lie.[8]

Timeline

  • 1374 – shorn woolly material used as stuffing.[8]
  • 1440 – noppe, the raised fibres on cloth.[8][6]
  • 1589 – the spelling nap.[6]
  • 1591 – a soft downy surface (Spenser).[8]
  • 1843 – get one's nap up, to lose one's temper (US).[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The short raised fibres on the surface of a fabric such as velvet or corduroy.
  2. A soft, downy surface resembling this.

Word family

  • napless

nap3 card game

Confidence
Established
Formation
Clipping
First attested
early 19th century

Etymology

The card game is a shortening of napoleon,[2][3][14][9] the name of a twenty-franc gold coin of France, after the emperor Napoleon I, and the original name of the game.[2][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the early 19th century it meant the coin, and by the middle of the century the card game.[14]

Semantic evolution

In the game, a player who undertakes to win all five tricks is said to go nap, earlier go the Napoleon;[2][14] figuratively, to go nap is to risk everything on one attempt.[14]

Timeline

  • early 19th century – a napoleon coin.[14]
  • mid 19th century – the card game.[14]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A card game in which each player is dealt five cards and bids the number of tricks they expect to win.
  2. A bid to win all five tricks in this game.

Usage notes

In Scots and in some English dialects (Cheshire, Oxfordshire, Suffolk), a nap was a wooden vessel, especially one for milk.[15] It continues the Old English word for a cup or bowl, Old English hnæp, which has a separate source.[16][8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  4. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d e Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  10. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  13. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  14. ^ 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
  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)
  16. ^ 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)

Related etymologies

  • cooper · also from Middle Dutch
  • pump · also from Middle Dutch
  • spray · also from Middle Dutch
  • tackle · also from Middle Dutch
  • drum · also from Middle Dutch
  • leak · also from Middle Dutch
  • slot · also from Middle Dutch
  • pill · also from Middle Dutch
Cite this entry

“Nap.” Etymologically, 22 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/nap. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

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