Wiktionary

chap

See also: CHAP, chap., cha̍p, chạp, chập, chấp, and chắp

EnglishEdit

PronunciationEdit

  • IPA(key): /tʃæp/
  • Audio (US)
    		(file)
  • Audio (AU)
    		(file)
  • Rhymes: -æp

Etymology 1Edit

Shortened from chapman (“dealer, customer”) in 16th century English.

NounEdit

chap (plural chaps)

  1. (dated outside Britain and Australia) A man, a fellow.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:man
    • 1899 Feb, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, page 194:
      “Now when I was a little chap I had a passion for maps.”
    • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
      A chap named Eleazir Kendrick and I had chummed in together the summer afore and built a fish-weir and shanty at Setuckit Point, down Orham way. For a spell we done pretty well.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 20, in The China Governess‎[1]:
      ‘No. I only opened the door a foot and put my head in. The street lamps shine into that room. I could see him. He was all right. Sleeping like a great grampus. Poor, poor chap.’
    Who’s that chap over there?
  2. (Britain, dialectal) A customer, a buyer.
    • 1728, John Gay, The Beggar's Opera Act 3
      If you have Blacks of any kind, brought in of late; Mantoes--Velvet Scarfs--Petticoats--Let it be what it will--I am your Chap--for all my Ladies are very fond of Mourning.
  3. (Southern US) A child.
Derived termsEdit
DescendantsEdit
  • Pennsylvania German: Tschaepp (“guy”)
TranslationsEdit

Etymology 2Edit

From Middle English chappen (“to split open, burst, chap”), of uncertain origin. Compare Middle English choppen (“to chop”), Dutch kappen (“to cut, chop, hack”). Perhaps related to chip.

VerbEdit

chap (third-person singular simple present chaps, present participle chapping, simple past and past participle chapped)

  1. (intransitive) Of the skin, to split or flake due to cold weather or dryness.
  2. (transitive) To cause to open in slits or chinks; to split; to cause the skin of to crack or become rough.
    • 1712, Richard Blackmore, Creation: A Philosophical Poem
      Then would unbalanced heat licentious reign, / Crack the dry hill, and chap the russet plain.
    • 1591, John Lyly, Endymion
      whose fair face neither the summer's blaze can scorch nor winter's blast chap.
  3. (Scotland, Northern England) To strike, knock.
    • 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
      And then it seems that through the open door there came the chapping of a clock.
    • 2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin 2009, page 35:
      The door was shut into my class. I had to chap it and then Miss Rankine came and opened it and gived me an angry look […]
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit

NounEdit

chap (plural chaps)

  1. A cleft, crack, or chink, as in the surface of the earth, or in the skin.
  2. (obsolete) A division; a breach, as in a party.
  3. (Scotland) A blow; a rap.
Derived termsEdit

Etymology 3Edit

From Northern English chafts (“jaws”). Compare also Middle English cheppe (“one side of the jaw, chap”).

NounEdit

chap (plural chaps)

  1. (archaic, often in the plural) The jaw.
  2. One of the jaws or cheeks of a vice, etc.
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit

Etymology 4Edit

Shortening

NounEdit

chap (plural chaps)

  1. (Internet slang) Clipping of chapter (“division of a text”).

See alsoEdit

AnagramsEdit

DutchEdit

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

chap m (plural chappen, diminutive chappie n)

  1. Alternative spelling of sjap.

PolishEdit

PronunciationEdit

VerbEdit

chap

  1. second-person singular imperative of chapać

ScotsEdit

PronunciationEdit

EtymologyEdit

Late Middle English, from Old English *ċeappian, *ċieppan, from Proto-Germanic *kapp-, *kap- (“to chop; cut; split”), like also English chop. The ultimate origin is uncertain; possibly from Vulgar Latin *cuppare (“to behead”), from Latin caput (“head”) and influenced by Old French couper (“to strike”).[1]

Akin to Saterland Frisian kappe, kapje (“to hack; chop; lop off”), Dutch kappen (“to chop, cut, hew”), Middle Low German koppen (“to cut off, lop, poll”), German Low German kappen (“to cut off; clip”), German kappen (“to cut; clip”), German dialectal chapfen (“to chop into small pieces”), Danish kappe (“to cut, lop off, poll”), Swedish kapa (“to cut”), Albanian copë (“piece, chunk”), Old English *ċippian (attested in forċippian (“to cut off”)).

VerbEdit

chap

  1. (transitive, intransitive) To knock (on) or strike.

ReferencesEdit

  1. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2021), “chop”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

SemaiEdit

Alternative formsEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Proto-Mon-Khmer *cap ~ *caap (“to seize”). Cognate with Old Khmer cap (“to seize, catch”), Kuy caːp (“to catch, hold”).

VerbEdit

chap[1]

  1. to hold
  2. to catch; to seize
  3. to touch

SynonymsEdit

Derived termsEdit

ReferencesEdit

  1. ^ Basrim bin Ngah Aching (2008) Kamus Engròq Semay – Engròq Malaysia, Kamus Bahasa Semai – Bahasa Malaysia, Bangi: Institut Alam dan Tamadun Melayu, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
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