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pip

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Pronunciation

pip1 disease of poultry

Etymology

The disease of birds is inherited from Middle English pippe,[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Middle Dutch pippe (“mucus, slime; the pip”),[6][3][7][4][5] which goes back to Medieval Latin pipita or an unrecorded *pippita.[6][4] This is probably an alteration of Latin pītuīta (“phlegm, slime”),[6][4][8][9] the source of pituitary.[7][5][9] Hoad and Etymonline see in the Dutch word an early West Germanic borrowing, Proto-West Germanic *pipit,[8][3] which also gave Middle Low German pip and Old High German pfipfiz,[8][6][9] and was the source of German Pips.[3][9][5] The Latin form also gave French pépie, Italian pipita and Spanish pepita.[6][10] Merriam-Webster relates the Latin word to Old Irish ith (“grain”).[4] The surname “Piphed” of 1273 may show that the word was already current in English.[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A disease of birds marked by thick mucus in the mouth and throat: Barnhart dates the form pipe to 1373,[7] and Etymonline puts the word in the late 14th century.[3] The OED's first quotation is from before 1425, in the Medulla Grammatice, a Latin–English glossary.[6]

Semantic evolution

The word named the white scale on a sick bird's tongue as well as the disease.[4][9] From the 15th century it was also used, often humorously, of illness in people,[6] and Merriam-Webster notes that it was once applied locally to various ailments, from a slight cough to dyspepsia.[4] In Warwickshire dialect it meant dyspepsia, and in Somerset and Devon to take pip at something was to take offence at it.[11] Green's Dictionary of Slang records the sense "ill humour" from 1538.[12] The phrases to have the pip, to feel low or unwell, and to give someone the pip, to annoy them, are recorded from 1881.[6] A verb pip, to remove the scale from a sick fowl's tongue, was used from 1530 to 1749.[6] Johnson (1755) described the disease as a horny skin growing on the tip of a fowl's tongue.[13]

Timeline

  • 1373 – the disease of birds, as pipe.[7] The OED's first quotation is from before 1425.[6]
  • before 1450 – illness in people.[6]
  • 1530 – the verb, to remove the scale from a fowl's tongue (obsolete by 1749).[6]
  • 1538 – ill humour.[12]
  • 1881 – to have the pip, to give someone the pip.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A disease of poultry and other birds, in which a scale or crust forms on the tip of the tongue, often with a respiratory infection; also the scale itself.[4][6][9]
  2. (informal) the pip: a fit of bad temper or low spirits, or a mild illness: The constant rain gave the whole family the pip.[4][6]

pip2 spot on cards and dice

Etymology

The spot on a card or dice is of unknown origin;[6][4][9][5][14] it was first spelled “peep”.[7][3][4] Because of this older form and the difference in dates, Etymonline no longer derives it from the seed, pip3.[3] The OED compares pippin and pick, and notes a suggested derivation from the verb peep, to look, comparing Middle High German ouge and German Auge (“eye”) used for a dot on a dice;[6] Weekley also thought it the same word as peep, through the notion of eyes, noting that the Germanic languages call these spots "eyes".[10] The verb, to beat narrowly or to blackball, apparently comes from this noun or from the seed, either taken as "a small ball";[6][9][4] Green's Dictionary of Slang takes the sense "to blackball" as a figurative use of the spot on a dice or card.[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Each of the dots or symbols on a playing card, a dice or a domino: the OED's first quotation is from 1604, in Middleton's The Ant and the Nightingale,[6] the date Merriam-Webster also gives.[4] Barnhart and Etymonline date the form peep to 1604 or about 1600,[7][3] and Dictionary.com to 1590–1600.[15] The form pip is found from 1674, in Charles Cotton's The Complete Gamester.[7]

Semantic evolution

From the dots on cards the word spread to other small marks: a small spot or speck, especially on the skin (1676), now regional in England and colloquial in the US;[6][4] the diamond-shaped segments on the surface of a pineapple (1753);[6] and, in gardening, a single flower in a cluster, as of a cowslip (1752), chiefly in British regional use.[6] A figurative sense, a small amount or degree, was used from Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew into the 18th century.[6][9] From 1917 pip was the name of the stars on an army officer's shoulder,[6][10] and since 1944 of a spike or spot on a radar or oscilloscope screen.[6][4] The verb meant first to beat narrowly (1838),[6][4] then to blackball (1880),[12] to hit with a shot (1900), to fail in an examination (1908) and to die (1913);[6] to pip at the post is recorded from 1924, in P. G. Wodehouse.[6]

Timeline

  • 1604 – a dot on a playing card or dice, at first spelled peep.[6][7][4]
  • before 1616 – figuratively, a small amount (obsolete by 1779).[6]
  • 1674 – the form pip.[7]
  • 1676 – a small spot or speck.[6]
  • 1752 – a single flower in a cluster.[6]
  • 1753 – a segment on the surface of a pineapple.[6]
  • 1838 – the verb, to beat narrowly.[6][4]
  • 1880 – the verb, to blackball.[12]
  • 1917 – a star on an officer's shoulder.[6]
  • 1924 – to pip at the post.[6]
  • 1944 – a spike or spot on a radar screen.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. One of the dots or symbols on a playing card, a dice or a domino that show its value.[4][6][9]
  2. (British) A star on the shoulder of an army officer's uniform, showing rank.[6][9]
  3. A spot of light or a spike on a radar or oscilloscope screen; a blip.[4][6]
  4. A small spot or speck, especially on the skin.[4][6][9]
  5. (horticulture) A single flower of a cluster; also the rootstock of the lily of the valley.[4][6]

Verb

  1. (British, informal) To defeat narrowly, especially at the last moment: Our horse was pipped at the post.[4][6][9]
  2. (British, informal) To hit with a shot.[6][9]
  3. (British) To blackball.[4][9][12]
  4. (British, informal) To die; often pip out.[4][6]

pip3 seed of a fruit

Etymology

The seed is a clipping from English pippin,[6][4][9][7][5] which first meant the seed of a fleshy fruit and later an apple grown from seed.[3][6] Pippin is from Middle English pipin, from Old French pepin (“seed or pip of a fruit”),[3][6] of uncertain origin, probably from a Romance base expressing smallness;[6][3] compare Spanish pepita (“seed, kernel”) and Italian pippolo.[3][6][9] The OED thinks the word was shortened separately for the obsolete sense "apple" in the 15th century and for the seed in the 18th.[6] Weekley thought the seed sense was influenced by pip the spot (pip2).[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The seed of a fleshy fruit such as an apple or orange: the OED's first quotation is from 1773, in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.[6] Etymonline, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date it to 1797,[3][7][4] and the Oxford Dictionary of English to the late 18th century.[16]

Semantic evolution

An older pip, short for pippin as a kind of apple, is found from about 1450, in Lydgate, until 1601.[6][2][9] The seed sense dates from the late 18th century.[6][16] Like pippin, the word came to mean something excellent, a sense first recorded in American English in 1900.[6][4][12] The phrase to squeeze until the pips squeak, to make someone pay as much as they can, is recorded from 1918;[6] according to the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, the British politician Sir Eric Geddes first used it.[17]

Timeline

  • c. 1450 – an apple tree, a pippin (obsolete by 1601).[6][2]
  • 1773 – a seed of a fleshy fruit.[6] Etymonline, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date it to 1797.[3][7][4]
  • 1900 – something excellent (originally American).[6]
  • 1918 – squeeze until the pips squeak.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A small seed of a fleshy fruit, such as an apple, pear, orange or grape: Spit the pips into the bowl.[4][18][6]
  2. (informal, chiefly US) Something or someone remarkable of its kind: That storm was a pip.[4][6][9]
  3. squeeze until the pips squeak: (British) to get the most money possible out of someone.[6][9]

Word family

  • pipless

pip4 short high sound

Etymology

The short high-pitched sound is imitative.[6][4][9][16] The verb meaning to chirp, recorded from 1598, is apparently a variant of peep2 or pipe with a shortened vowel;[6] Klein and Partridge also take pip, to chirp, as a variant of the same verb.[5][19] The verb used of a chick breaking its shell is of uncertain origin, perhaps imitative.[6][9] Merriam-Webster takes both verbs as imitative.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To chirp, of a young bird: 1598, in J. Florio's dictionary A Worlde of Wordes.[6] The Shorter Oxford dates this verb to the late 16th century.[9]

Semantic evolution

From 1841 the verb was used of a chick cracking the shell of its egg when hatching, often figuratively;[6] it was used in this sense in the dialects of Warwickshire, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, and in America.[11] In the 20th century the word was applied to electronic signals: Merriam-Webster dates the noun, a short high tone used as a signal, to 1907,[4] and the OED's first quotation, for the radio time signal, is from 1929, in the BBC's yearbook.[6] A verb pip, to toot a car horn, is recorded from 1918, and of a radio or telephone, to give out such tones, from 1938.[6] The pips are the time signal broadcast on the radio and the tones heard on a telephone line.[6][9]

Timeline

  • 1598 – the verb, to chirp.[6]
  • 1841 – the verb, of a chick, to crack the eggshell.[6]
  • 1907 – a short high-pitched tone used as a signal.[4] The OED's first quotation is from 1929.[6]
  • 1918 – the verb, to toot a horn.[6]
  • 1938 – the verb, of a radio or telephone, to give out pips.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A short, high-pitched tone used as a signal, as in a radio time signal or on a telephone line: She set her watch by the pips on the radio.[4][6][9]

Verb

  1. Of a young bird, to chirp or peep.[4][6][9]
  2. Of a hatching chick, to break through the shell of the egg; of an egg, to crack open in this way.[4][6][9]
  3. Of a radio, telephone or the like, to give out short high tones.[6][9]

Usage notes

In British signalling, pip was also an arbitrary syllable for the letter P in spoken messages, recorded from 1898 and now rare; it survives in pip emma, p.m.[6][9]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ 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 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ 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 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ 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 28 29 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  11. ^ a b 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)
  12. ^ a b c d e f g Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  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. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  15. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  16. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  17. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  18. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  19. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul