pippin

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English pipin, also pepin and popin,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French pepin,^[5][2][6][7] the Anglo-Norman and Middle French word for the seed of a fleshy fruit, recorded from about 1175 in Old French, and in the early 13th century also a seedling apple tree.^[5] The Anglo-Norman Dictionary's records begin in 1086.^[8] The French word is of uncertain origin:^[5][9][10] the OED thinks it probably goes back to an expressive Romance base meaning "small", like Spanish pepita (“seed, kernel”) and perhaps Tuscan pippolo (“grain, seed”).^[5][11][7] Barnhart and Partridge likewise see in the repeated p an expression of smallness,^[3][12] and Klein calls the French word imitative.^[13] The OED thinks a link with pepō (“melon”) unlikely.^[5] Johnson had derived the word from Dutch, following Skinner.^[14] The word pip, a fruit seed, is a shortening of it.^[15][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The seed of a fleshy fruit: before 1325, in Cursor Mundi, according to Barnhart, who also notes a surname Pypin from 1297.^[3] The OED's first quotation is from the Wycliffite Bible (before 1382);^[5][2] it thinks the surname more likely a pet form of the name Philip.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word named a fruit seed, and also a grape (before 1382 to 1475).^[5][2] By 1432, in Lydgate, it named a kind of sweet, late-ripening apple that kept well,^[5][3] and later any of many apple varieties;^[5] Etymonline explains that prized varieties raised from seed were called by the name of the seed.^[15][16] Johnson (1755) called the pippin "a sharp apple", quoting Mortimer on stone, Kentish, French and russet pippins.^[14] The seed sense survived in northern English dialect,^[5][17] where young people pressed apple pips between finger and thumb as a love charm.^[17] From 1665 a pippin could be a person, at first a foolish or naive one, later a darling;^[5][18] the phrase as sound as a pippin, in perfect health, is recorded from 1843.^[5] In American colloquial use from 1897, a pippin is an excellent or beautiful person or thing.^[5][15]

Timeline

• before 1325 – the seed of a fleshy fruit.^[3] The OED's first record is from before 1382.^[5]
• before 1382 – a grape (obsolete by 1475).^[5][2]
• 1432 – a kind of sweet apple that keeps well.^[5][3]
• 1665 – a person, at first a foolish one, later a darling.^[5] Green's Dictionary of Slang has it from 1664.^[18]
• 1843 – as sound as a pippin, in perfect health.^[5]
• 1897 – an excellent or beautiful person or thing (originally US).^[5][15]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of many varieties of fine-flavoured eating apple, usually with yellowish skin flushed with red: a basket of Cox's pippins.^[4][9][5]
2. An apple grown from a seedling.^[4][5]
3. (chiefly British) A seed of a fruit; a pip.^[4][9][5]
4. (colloquial) A much-admired person or thing.^[4][5]
5. (obsolete, 1382–1475) A grape.^[5][2]

Related words

• pip
• pepita

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ 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 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 Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
13. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
14. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
16. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
17. ^ 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)
18. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com