Etymologically
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ripe

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Pronunciation

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
  • 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