# chap
## English
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /t͡ʃæp/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Rhymes: -æp

### Etymology 1

Clipping of chapman (“dealer, customer”) in 16th-century English.

#### Noun

chap (plural chaps)
* (dated outside UK and Australia) A man, a fellow.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:man
    Who’s that chap over there?
** 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 194:“Now when I was a little chap I had a passion for maps.”
** 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC: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: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:‘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.’
* (UK, 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.
* (Southern US) A child.

##### Derived terms

* chapess
* chapette
* chap-hop
* chappie
* chappish
* Chappism
* Chappist
* chappo
* old chap

##### Descendants

* Pennsylvania German: Tschaepp (“guy”)

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

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.

#### Verb

chap (third-person singular simple present chaps, present participle chapping, simple past and past participle chapped)
* (intransitive) Of the skin, to split or flake due to cold weather or dryness.
* (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.
* (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, published 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 terms

* chap someone's hide
* chapped
* chapstick
* chapt

##### Translations
#### Noun

chap (plural chaps)
* A cleft, crack, or chink, as in the surface of the earth, or in the skin.
* (obsolete) A division; a breach, as in a party.
** 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI):Many clefts and chaps in our council board.
* (Scotland) A blow; a rap.

##### Derived terms

* chappy

### Etymology 3

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

#### Noun

chap (plural chaps)
* (archaic, often in the plural) The jaw.
** 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):This wide-chapp'd rascal—would thou might'st lie drowning / The washing of ten tides!
** a. 1667, Abraham Cowley, The Song:His chaps were all besmear'd with crimson blood.
** c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:He unseamed him from the nave to the chaps.
* One of the jaws or cheeks of a vice, etc.

##### Derived terms

* chapfallen
* chapless

##### Related terms

* chop

##### Translations
### Etymology 4

Shortening

#### Noun

chap (plural chaps)
* (Internet slang) Clipping of chapter (“division of a text”).

### See also

* chap chye
* chap lau chu
* chaps
* kway chap

### Anagrams

* CHPA, HCAP, PHAC, Pach

## Dutch
### Pronunciation

* Audio:(file)

### Noun

chap m (plural chappen, diminutive chappie n)
* Alternative spelling of sjap

## Hokkien
### Etymology 1

* For pronunciation and definitions of chap – see 汁 (“juice; gravy; sauce; etc.”). (This term is the pe̍h-ōe-jī form of 汁).

### Etymology 2

* For pronunciation and definitions of chap – see 紮 (“to tie; to bind; bundle; etc.”). (This term is the pe̍h-ōe-jī form of 紮).

## Polish
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈxap/
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -ap
* Syllabification: chap

### Etymology 1

Onomatopoeic.

#### Alternative forms

* chaps

#### Interjection

chap
* used to express an unexpected movement involving a sudden grasping of something

##### Related terms

* chapać impf
* chapać dzidę impf
* chapnąć pf
* chapsnąć pf

### Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

#### Verb

chap
* second-person singular imperative of chapać

### Further reading

* chap in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
* chap in Polish dictionaries at PWN

## Scots
### Etymology

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”).
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”)).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /tʃap/

### Verb

chap
* (ambitransitive) To knock (on) or strike.

### References

* ↑ Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “chop”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

## Semai
### Alternative forms

* cap

### Etymology

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

### Verb

chap
* to hold
* to catch; to seize
* to touch

#### Synonyms

* (to hold): pegak
* (to touch): lèèw

#### Derived terms

* che'nap

### References

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