ripe

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ripe, inherited from Old English rīpe (“ready for reaping, mature”),^[2][3][4][5] from Proto-Germanic *rīpijaz,^[4][1] a West Germanic adjective.^[5][6][7] It is cognate with Old Saxon rīpi, Middle Dutch rīpe (modern Dutch rijp), Old High German rīfi (modern German reif) and West Frisian ryp, all with a similar range of meanings.^[3][4][8] It is related to reap:^[3][5][4][8] Klein calls these adjectives verbal adjectives formed from rīpan (“to reap”) and its cognates,^[8] and Kroonen explains the Germanic adjective as a vṛddhi gerundive of the verb for harvesting.^[9] The word is usually explained as "fit for reaping", first of grain and then of all fruit.^[5][10] Ayto adds that reap may go back to Proto-Indo-European *rei- (“to tear, scratch”).^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of grain or fruit, ready for harvesting or eating: Old English, in the translation of Bede,^[3] before 899 in Alfred's translation of Boethius.^[4] Old English already used it of animals fit to be eaten,^[5] of a death that comes at the fitting time after a full life,^[3] and of a person of mature judgement.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense, fully developed or mature, is recorded from about 1200, in Vices and Virtues,^[4][5] while from about 1230 ripe could describe a matter properly thought over.^[3] By the late 14th century it meant full-grown, as in a ripe age;^[5] before 1398, in Trevisa, it also meant ready or fit for something, as in the time is ripe;^[4][5] Barnhart compares German zeitig, timely, which means "ripe" in southern Germany, and Latin mātūrus.^[4] Of animals it meant fully developed, or fit to be killed for food (about 1325), and of people grown up, also marriageable (before 1393, in Gower).^[3] Lips and complexions have been called ripe, red and full like ripe fruit, since 1600 in Shakespeare,^[3] or the 1580s in Etymonline.^[5] The proverb soon ripe, soon rotten is found by the 1540s.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined the word as "brought to perfection in growth; mature".^[12] In 17th-century slang ripe could mean drunk, as in Shakespeare's reeling-ripe (1611).^[13] The old verb ripe, to become ripe, was largely replaced by ripen in the 16th century.^[14][6][4] In Worcestershire dialect a ripe animal was a fat one, and in Hampshire the word meant rotten, especially of wood.^[15]

Timeline

• before 899 – of grain, ready for reaping.^[4][3]
• c. 1200 – mature, fully developed (figurative).^[4][5]
• c. 1230 – properly considered, deliberated.^[3]
• c. 1325 – of a bird or animal, fully developed; fit to be eaten.^[3]
• before 1393 – of a person, fully grown; marriageable.^[3]
• before 1398 – ready, prepared for something.^[4]
• 1540s – the proverb soon ripe, soon rotten.^[5]
• 1561 – ripen, to grow ripe.^[4]
• 1600 – of lips or complexion, red and full.^[3]
• 1611 – reeling-ripe, drunk.^[13]
• 1674 – of an egg cell, mature, ready for fertilization.^[3]
• 1853 – of a fish or insect, ready to spawn.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of fruit or grain, fully grown and ready to be harvested or eaten: The plums were ripe by the end of July.^[16][17][3]
2. Of cheese, wine and the like, aged until full-flavoured and ready to use.^[16][6]
3. Fully developed in body or mind; mature, especially in judgement or knowledge.^[16][3]
4. Ready or suitable for something, often with for: The old docks were ripe for redevelopment.^[16][17]
5. the time is ripe: the right moment for something has come.^[16][5]
6. Of the lips or complexion, full and red like ripe fruit.^[16][3]
7. a ripe old age: an advanced but healthy age.^[16]

Word family

• ripely
• ripeness
• overripe
• ripen
• underripe

Related words

• reap
• rife

Usage notes

Several other words have been spelled ripe.^[3][17] A verb meaning to search thoroughly, rob or rifle, now Scottish and northern, is from Old English rȳpan, related to Gothic 𐍂𐌰𐌿𐍀𐌾𐌰𐌽 (raupjan, “to pluck”).^{[3][17][6][15]} A noun meaning riverbank or seashore, now rare, comes partly from Latin rīpa (“bank”).^[3][17][6] In Kent and Sussex dialect it meant a bank or the seashore.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ a b c 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)
16. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster