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Etymology and origin of the English word nip

English has two main words spelled nip: the verb meaning to pinch or bite, with its noun, and the noun for a small drink of spirits, which is probably short for nipperkin.[1][2][3][4]

Pronunciation

nip1 to pinch, bite

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1381 a document in Morsbach's Mittelenglische Originalurkunden
Borrowed from
Middle Dutch nīpen via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Middle Dutch nīpen

Etymology

The verb meaning to pinch is inherited from Middle English nippen, also nipen,[6][1] probably borrowed from Middle Dutch nīpen (“to pinch”).[6][7][3][8] The OED takes it from an unrecorded intensive form of the Middle Dutch verb, with a doubled consonant, and compares Dutch nippen (“to sip”), recorded from 1644, and German nippen, which meant drinking with pinched lips.[8] Barnhart derives it instead from Middle Low German nīpen (“to nip”),[1][9] and Etymonline calls the exact development of the stem obscure.[4] Related forms are Dutch nijpen (“to pinch”) and Old Norse hnippa (“to prod”);[1][4][2] Collins and Dictionary.com derive the English verb from the Old Norse word itself.[10][11] Orel reconstructs Proto-Germanic *knīpaną (“to pinch”), which he identifies with Lithuanian gnýbti (“to pinch”),[12] and Barnhart traces the group to Proto-Indo-European *knip-.[1] Skeat and Weekley compare forms such as German kneifen (“to pinch”).[13][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

To catch between two surfaces or points; to pinch, bite or squeeze sharply: 1381, in a Middle English document.[8] Barnhart's first record is nyppen in a version of Piers Plowman, probably before 1387,[1] where Wrath is shown nyppyng hus lyppes, biting his lips.[6]

Semantic evolution

From pinching came the sense of taking something off by pinching, recorded about 1400 or 1450,[4][8] and in the 16th century that of nipping with words, to rebuke or taunt, now Scottish.[8] The effect of frost on young growth gave the sense "to blast, check the growth of" in the 1580s,[4] and the figurative nip in the bud, to destroy something at its first stage, is recorded from about 1600.[4] The noun followed the verb: a sharp remark from 1549, a pinch or bite from 1551,[1][8] a check to plants caused by cold from 1614, and later a biting chill in the air and a sharp flavour.[8][4] A colloquial sense, to move quickly or nimbly (nip out, nip in), dates from 1825.[4][15] Elizabethan underworld slang used nip for a cutpurse and for cutting a purse, from 1591.[16] The American phrase nip and tuck, neck and neck, is recorded by 1847.[4]

Timeline

  • 1381 – to pinch, bite or squeeze sharply.[8]
  • c. 1450 – to sever or remove by pinching.[8]
  • 1548 – to rebuke, direct sharp words at.[8]
  • 1549 – noun, a sharp remark or taunt (now obsolete).[8][1]
  • 1551 – noun, a pinch, a sharp bite.[8][1]
  • 1580s – of frost, to check the growth of plants.[4]
  • c. 1600 – nip in the bud.[4]
  • 1614 – noun, a check to growth caused by cold; a chill.[8]
  • 1825 – to move quickly, as in nip out.[4]
  • 1847 – nip and tuck, a close contest.[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To pinch or squeeze something tightly between two edges or points, or to give it a small sharp bite: The puppy nipped at the boy's ankles.[10][2][8]
  2. To remove something by pinching or clipping it, usually with off: She nipped off the dead flowers.[10][8]
  3. Of cold or frost, to sting, or to damage or check the growth of plants.[10][2][4]
  4. nip in the bud: to stop something at its very beginning.[10][4]
  5. (British, informal) To go somewhere quickly or briefly: I'll nip out to the post office.[10][4][15]
  6. (slang) To steal.[10][16]

Noun

  1. A pinch or a small sharp bite.[2][8][3]
  2. A sharp, stinging chill in the air.[2][8][4]
  3. A sharp or biting comment.[2][8]
  4. A sharp, pungent flavour.[8][2]
  5. nip and tuck: so close that neither side leads.[4][2]

Word family

  • nipper
  • nippy
  • frostnip
  • nip and tuck

nip2 small drink

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Clipping
First attested
1736 B. Lynde, Diary
Ultimate origin
English nipperkin

Etymology

The small drink is probably a clipping from English nipperkin, a measure of half a pint or less of beer or spirits, recorded from 1671 and possibly of Dutch or Low German origin.[1][4][2][3][8] Collins and ODE compare Dutch nippen (“to sip”),[10][17] and Etymonline compares German Nipp (“sip, taste”).[4] Barnhart and Etymonline think the sense was reinforced by the sense "a bit pinched off something" of the noun from the pinching verb (from about 1600);[1][4] the OED, however, considers the likeness to the Germanic verbs for pinching apparently a coincidence.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Originally a half-pint or less of ale: 1736, in the diary of B. Lynde.[8] Barnhart, Etymonline and Merriam-Webster date the word to 1796, in Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.[1][4][2]

Semantic evolution

The measure of ale soon gave way to a small quantity of spirits, usually less than a glassful, or a sip of any strong drink.[8][3] The verb nip, to drink in small amounts, was formed from the noun in the 19th century: the OED dates it to 1857,[8] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster to 1887.[1][2] In the dialects of Scotland, northern England and the Midlands a nip was any small drink of spirits.[18] In American slang a nip joint was an illegal bar selling drink in small measures.[16]

Timeline

  • 1671 – nipperkin, a small measure of liquor.[1]
  • 1736 – a half-pint or less of ale.[8]
  • 1796 – a small drink of spirits.[1][4]
  • 1857 – verb, to take small drinks of alcohol.[8] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date the verb to 1887.[1][2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A small drink of liquor or spirits: He took a nip of rum against the cold.[2][10][3]

Verb

  1. To drink liquor in small amounts; to tipple.[2][3][8]
  • nipperkin

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  6. ^ a b c 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)
  7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  12. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  15. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  16. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  17. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  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)

Related etymologies

  • nap · also from Middle Dutch
  • tick · also from Middle Dutch
  • prop · also from Middle Dutch
  • rover · also from Middle Dutch
  • groove · also from Middle Dutch
  • mesh · also from Middle Dutch
  • slack · also from Middle Dutch
  • scum · also from Middle Dutch
Cite this entry

“Nip.” Etymologically, 31 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/nip. Accessed 1 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·