Monday June 21, 2004
Word of the Day
Today’s randomness is brought to you by the word: Neap
I don’t know what made me think of this word, but it came to me randomly today and it makes me laugh. I think it is pretty weird sounding, conjuring up images of Muppets a la Sesame Street running around muttering “NEEEAPneapneapneapneapneap” or some such nonsense. I suppose it could also be a sound uttered by cousins of the Knights who say “Ni!”
Anyway, it’s a word that is only really used in one context, and of which no one is sure from where it originated. So there you go, random word, randomly originated. Consider this your Word of the Day!
[Origin unknown. Cf. German regional (Low German: East Friesland) Nippflood, Nipptide, German Nippflut (1827 or earlier), Nipptide, Swedish nipflod (1881), niptid (1887), Danish nipflod (1880 or earlier), niptid (1756 or earlier; also in form neptid), all late borrowings, prob. ult. from English. Connections with the Germanic bases of NIP v.1 and NEB n. have been suggested, but are difficult to explain phonologically and semantically.
Definition and etymology taken from the OED.
I always thought it was spelled neep.
http://info.astrian.net/jargon/terms/n/neep-neep.html
Wow, who knew there was ANOTHER neep word! Although it looks like yours means something completely different. So as far as spellings go, it looks like we’re both right. :)
Still, it’s a strange sounding word…
2 | Posted by: Jennifer
on June 22, 2004 @ 8:30 AM
I was thinking of Monty Python and the Holy Grail when they had the Army that go “Neep!”
They the prance and neepped all around.
3 | Posted by: Mona on June 24, 2004 @ 10:07 AM
