Etymologically
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reaper

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Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English repere, inherited from Old English rīpere,[1][2][3] formed from Old English rīpan + -ere, the Old English verb that became reap.[1][4][5] The OED notes that surnames such as Gilbert le Riper (1279) and Mariota Reper (1327) suggest the word was current in early Middle English, though some of them may instead reflect rippier, and that Old English also had a synonymous formation riftere.[4] Etymonline first finds the Middle English word in surnames in the early 14th century.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who reaps, a harvester: Old English, in the West Saxon Gospels, where the reapers of Matthew 13 translate Latin messores.[4][6]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined the word simply as one who cuts corn at harvest.[7] The figure of death as a reaper, from the picture of Death wielding a scythe, is recorded from 1650, in John Sparrow's translation of Böhme, often with an adjective such as great or old;[4][5] Etymonline dates this personification by 1818.[3] The set phrase grim reaper, death or a cause of death personified, typically as a cloaked skeleton with a scythe, is recorded from 1847 in a Milwaukee newspaper,[4] while Merriam-Webster dates it only to about 1927.[1] With the mechanisation of farming the word was applied from the 1840s to a machine that cuts grain, and later also binds it.[4][3][5] In Somerset dialect the leader of a group of harvesters was called the king of the reapers.[8] In American drug slang of the late 1960s a reaper was a marijuana cigarette, an alteration of reefer.[9]

Timeline

  • Old English – rīpere, a person who reaps.[4][6]
  • 1279 – the surname Gilbert le Riper, perhaps showing the word in Middle English.[4]
  • 1650 – death personified as a reaper.[4] Etymonline dates this sense by 1818.[3]
  • 1844 – a machine for cutting grain.[4] Etymonline dates it by 1841.[3]
  • 1847 – grim reaper, death personified.[4] Merriam-Webster dates the phrase to about 1927.[1]
  • 1969 – US drug slang, a marijuana cigarette.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A person who reaps a crop; a harvester.[10][1][4]
  2. A machine that cuts grain, and in later models also binds it into sheaves.[10][1][5]
  3. the (Grim) Reaper: death personified, usually as a figure with a scythe: The old sailor joked that the Grim Reaper had missed him twice.[10][5][4]

Word family

  • Grim Reaper

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  2. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  8. ^ 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)
  9. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins