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nip

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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

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

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)