didapper

English

Etymology

From Middle English dydoppar, from earlier douedoppe, deuedep, dyuedap with agentive suffix -er, from Old English dūfedoppa (“diving bird, pelican”), from dūfan (“to dive”) + *doppa (“diver”) (whence modern English dop (“diving bird”)). By surface analysis, dive +‎ dop +‎ -er.

Noun

didapper (plural didappers)

1. A small diving water bird frequenting rivers and fresh waters, specifically a little grebe or dabchick.
   • 1679, Francis Beaumont, Fifty comedies and tragedies, page 483:

     The misery of man may fitly be compar'd to a Di­dapper, who when she is under water, past our sight, and indeed can seem no more to us, rises again; […]

2. (obsolete, derogatory) A scoundrel, a worthless person
   • 1589, John Lyly, Pappe with an hatchet, page 3:

     If a Martin can play at cheſtes, as well as his nephewe the ape, he ſhall knowe what it is for a ſcaddle pawne, to croſſe a Biſhop in his owne walke. Such dydoppers must be taken vp, els theile not ſtick to check the king.

   • 1592, Thomas Nashe, Strange newes, of the intercepting certaine letters, and a conuoy of verſes, as they were going priuilie to victuall the Low Countries:

     In earneſt thus; There is a Doctor and his Fart, that haue kept a foule ſtinking ſtirre in Paules Churchyard; I crie him mercie I ſlaundered him, he is ſcarſe a Doctor till he hath done his Acts: this dodipoule, this didopper, this profeſſed poetical braggart, hath raild vpon me with out wit or art, in certaine foure penniworth of Letters, and three farthing-worth of Sonnets; now do I meane to preſent him and Shakerley to the Queens foole-taker for coatch-horſes: for two that draw more equallie in one Oratoriall yoke of vaine-glorie there is not vnder heauen.

   • 1600, William Kempe, Kemps nine daies vvonder, page 6:

     In this towne two Cut-purſes were taken, that with other two of their companions followed mee from Lõdon (as many better diſpoſed perſons did): but theſe two dy-doppers gaue out when they were apprehended, that they had laid wagers and betted about my iourney; […]

References

• Notes on the birds of Herefordshire, Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club
• “didapper”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “dī̆ve-dap, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved November 2019.