Wiktionary

topper

See also: Topper

English

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Etymology

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A man wearing a topper (sense 2).

From Middle English toppor, equivalent to top +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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topper (plural toppers)

  1. Something that is on top.
    • 1947 September 6, “Paul Baron Nixes 2 Morgan Albums”, in Joseph G. Csida, editor, The Billboard: The World’s Foremost Amusement Weekly, volume 59, number 35, Cincinnati, Oh.: Roger S. Littleford Jr.; William D. Littleford, →OCLC, page 14, column 3:
      Deal for network star Henry Morgan to sign a Majestic contract for two albums has fallen thru, with Paul Baron, newly-named artist and repertoire topper at the diskery, kiboshing a deal that virtually had been consummated between his predecessors and Music Corporation of America (MCA).
    • 1999, John Yeoman, Self Reliance: A Recipe for the New Millennium, page 55:
      Chicken livers, of course, can also be gently fried, mashed in butter, and spread as a toast topper.
    • 2009 January 26, Cameron Adams, “Sniffer dogs have their Big Day Out”, in Herald Sun‎[1], archived from the original on 31 May 2009:
      UK act the Prodigy will headline the Boiler Room, with chart toppers the Ting Tings playing at 2.15pm on the green stage.
  3. A top hat.
    • 1980, Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book, page 61:
      This is another area in which it's hard to tell the dude from the twitcher, as ratting caps and deerstalkers, flying helmets and even toppers are considered acceptably eccentric.
  4. Something that exceeds those previous in a series, as a joke or prank.
  5. (chiefly US) A short outer jacket worn by women or children.
  6. A soft, relatively thin, piece of padding placed on top of a mattress, or forming the upper layer of a mattress.
  7. (India) The student who achieves the highest score in an examination.
  8. (colloquial) The head or chief of an organization.
    • 1953 August 29, Billboard, page 4:
      Cooley currently is ironing out details of the proposed kinescoping with Klaus Landsberg, topper at KTLA, over whose facilities the hour-long show has been telecast […]
  9. A person or tool that cuts off the top of something.
    • 1980, Barry Targan, Kingdoms, page 24:
      At first, in the pines, he had worked as a topper in his strong and boldest days, walking up the trees two hundred feet […]
    • 2007 October 14, Amanda Hesser, “2000: Le Bernardin’s Croque-Monsieur”, in New York Times‎[2]:
      The only problem is that the best egg toppers, which are different from egg cutters, are an investment — the Inox professional egg topper is $55 at surlatable.com .
  10. One who tops steel ingots.
  11. A single-handed dinghy, 11 foot (3.6 metres) in length, with only one sail.
  12. A three-square float, or file, used by comb-makers.
  13. (dated, slang) Tobacco left in the bottom of a pipe bowl; so called from being often taken out and placed on top of the newly filled bowl.
    • 1875, E. R. Billings, Tobacco (page 189)
      One man was faithful to his pipe, and kept / Despair and deeper misery at bay, / By seeking ever for a "topper," dropped / From some spurned pipe, but that he could not find; […]
  14. (dated, slang) A fine or remarkable thing or person.
    • 1957, Allan Campbell McLean, Storm Over Skye, page 194:
      It was a topper of a day for a Sale, although the heat would be hard on the beasts that had come a long way.
  15. (dated, slang) A blow on the head.
  16. A small secondary comic strip seen along with a larger Sunday strip, and usually by the same author.
  17. (Ireland) A pencil sharpener.

Derived terms

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Further reading

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Dutch

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Aythya marila (male) in Nederlandsche vogelen, 1770-1829

Etymology

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From top +‎ -er.

The bird name is generally taken to derive from the noun top ("top"), not the adjective top ("great, amazing"). Some have instead adduced the dialectal word dobber (referring to both the greater scaup and the tufted duck), which was apparently current in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen at some point, with devoicing of both d- (to t-) and -bb- (to -pp-) yielding this form.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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topper m (plural toppers, diminutive toppertje n)

  1. someone or something excellent; a belter, a ripper
  2. the greater scaup, Aythya marila
    Synonym: toppereend

Derived terms

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Further reading

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Latin

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Etymology

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From *tod (“that”), and per. Compare semper, paulīsper, parumper, nūper.

Pronunciation

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Adverb

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topper (not comparable)

  1. (Old Latin) quickly
    • 3rd century BCE, Livius Andronicus, Odusia book 8, (Saturnian verse):
      namque nūllum pejus / mācerat hūmānum
      quamde mare saevom. / vīrēs quoi sunt magnae
      topper cōnfringent / importūnae undae.
      This roughly translates 8.138-139 of Homer's Odyssey:
      οὐ γὰρ ἐγώ γέ τί φημι κακώτερον ἄλλο θαλάσσης
      ἄνδρα γε συγχεῦαι, εἰ καὶ μάλα καρτερὸς εἴη.
    • 3rd-2nd century BCE, anonymous, Carmen Nelei :
      topper fortūnae commūtantur hominibus.
    • 3rd century BCE, Livius Andronicus, Odusia book 10, (Saturnian verse):
      topper facit hominēs / ut prius fuērunt

References

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  • Walde, Alois, Hofmann, Johann Baptist (1954) “topper”, in Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), 3rd edition, volume 2, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, page 692
  • “topper”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • topper in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  • topper in Georges, Karl Ernst, Georges, Heinrich (1913–1918) Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th edition, volume 2, Hahnsche Buchhandlung

Norwegian Bokmål

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Noun

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topper m

  1. indefinite plural of topp
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