trope

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin tropus (“a figure of speech”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Ancient Greek τρόπος (trópos, “a turn, direction, way, manner; a figure of speech”),^[2][3][7][4] related to τροπή (tropḗ, “a turning”) and τρέπω (trépō, “to turn”),^[2][3][6][8] from Proto-Indo-European *trep- (“to turn”).^[2][3][4][8] The OED thinks it was probably borrowed partly directly from Greek, and that the astronomical sense, the turn of the sun at a solstice, comes partly from tropa (“solstice”) and Greek tropḗ.^[7] Klein and Weekley take it through French trope,^[8][9] which the OED dates to 1554.^[7] In post-classical Latin tropus also meant a chant or melody, and a sung verse added to the Mass or the office.^[7] The Latin word had been used in Old English by Ælfric, but the OED finds no continuity with the 16th-century borrowing.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In rhetoric, the use of a word or phrase in a sense other than its proper one; a figure of speech: 1533, in Tyndale's The Supper of the Lord.^[2][10] Etymonline dates it to the 1530s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The rhetorical sense was the first, and Etymonline quotes the Century Dictionary's examples of calling a stupid fellow an ass or a shrewd man a fox.^[3] Johnson (1755) explained a trope as a change of a word from its original meaning, quoting Butler's Hudibras.^[11] From 1599 the word was also used of the solstice and of the tropics.^[7] In the liturgy, a trope is a phrase or verse sung as an embellishment in the medieval Mass (from 1609),^[7][6][12] and a troper was a book of tropes, already in Old English.^[6] Later uses arose in several fields: the Moravian Church (1753), Greek scepticism (1841), geometry (1875) and philosophy (1953), where a trope is a particular, unrepeatable property.^[7] The most recent sense, a significant or recurring theme or motif, especially in literature and culture, is recorded from 1975.^[7][13] The verb, to express something figuratively, is recorded from 1582.^[7]

Timeline

• 1533 – a figure of speech, in Tyndale.^[2]
• 1582 – verb, to represent figuratively.^[7]
• 1599 – the turn of the sun at a solstice.^[7]
• 1609 – a verse sung as an embellishment in the Mass.^[7]
• 1841 – an argument of the Greek sceptics.^[7]
• 1953 – philosophy, a particular instance of a property.^[7]
• 1975 – a recurring theme or motif.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (rhetoric) The use of a word or expression in a figurative sense; a figure of speech such as a metaphor.^[13][12][7]
2. A recurring theme, idea or motif, especially in literature, film or culture: the familiar trope of the reluctant hero.^[13][7]
3. A phrase, verse or melody added as an embellishment to the sung parts of the medieval Mass.^[13][12][7]
4. (philosophy) A particular property as it occurs at one time and place, as opposed to a universal.^[7]

Verb

1. To express or depict something figuratively.^[7]

Word family

• tropology
• troper

Related words

• -trope
• tropic
• tropism
• tropo-
• -tropy
• trophy
• troubadour
• entropy

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), 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. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins