Kipe

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Vicki. I’m calling from Appleton, Wisconsin.

Well, hello, Appleton.

I have a question about a word that I used commonly in grade school. And then it fell out of my vocabulary, but I used it again at work and thought, my word, I haven’t used this word forever. And the word we used was kype, like C-I-P-E or K-Y-P-E. We used it when we took something that wasn’t really ours, but we needed and it seemed to not be important to the adults who controlled the resources. And we never used that word around adults because you didn’t necessarily want to bring up what you did. But what we were doing was lifting things that were in the general neighborhood, not in someone else’s houses. And it was clearly understood not to mean steel. And if someone located what you’d carried off, which tended to be materials for building forts, you would, of course, give it right back.

And I brought it up to a couple of friends who didn’t live near me when we grew up. And a couple of them knew the word very well, and others were completely flummoxed by the idea. And I’m wondering where it came from, how I ever would have learned such a word.

Were your friends also from the same part of the country?

No. I grew up outside Minneapolis. Another grew up in Winona, Minnesota, which is, I don’t know, maybe 100, 200 miles. And another one was North Dakota.

Huh.

So it’s not permanently stealing. It’s just kind of appropriating or something?

It’s appropriating. And when it came up in my mind just recently, I had gone into an office that was being refurbished from my office and was looking for envelopes. As I went through drawers looking for them, I found a couple of telephone receivers, which we needed in our section. And it is true that if we had put through some sort of a work order, we would get those receivers eventually. And instead I just sort of picked those babies up and walked away and thought, I’ve typed some telephone receivers.

Right, so it wasn’t stealing because it’s still within the company. You’re just kind of taking them out of somebody else’s control and putting them in your own, right?

Yeah.

What would you say if I told you that this word is probably related to another word that’s 750 years old?

I would like to know what that word is and where in the world I ever picked up such a word.

Well, let’s answer that in two parts. First, the word that it’s probably related to is to kip, K-I-P. And it originally meant something like to seize or catch or hold on to. You can find it in the old work, the English Dialect Dictionary under K-I-P. And there, it’s defined as to take the property of another by fraud or violence, which is a much more severe kind of definition than you’ve given us. But, you know, words tend to kind of blandify and ameliorate over time. They tend to become more gentle. The way you learned it is the same way that you learned all of your language. You absorbed it from somebody else. And there is a language of children that kind of passes from child to child. And, of course, you learn plenty of stuff from your parents. But children do learn from each other. You could have easily learned this.

Oh, yeah. This was within the mob.

Yeah, you could have easily learned this from someone thousands of miles away. Children’s language really does travel very fast because children know children the same way that adults know adults. So they may seem like they don’t know that many people, but all they need to know is one other person to learn a word. And you only have to hear a word once in order to pick it up. So it doesn’t take much for a word to travel.

So, Vicki, you kyped the word kype.

If it seemed appropriate, I would have.

Well, I’ve got to tell you, Vicki, this was a really interesting story about your childhood. I love hearing this stuff. I talk to my wife about these things all the time, and she grew up just a state away from me, and her language was different. We had some things in common, but there were some things that were different. Kype wasn’t a part of my childhood.

Well, I think you had to be in a growing up situation where you could kype things.

Oh, believe me, we kyped, but not by that word. My father would often come, where’s my 9-16th wrench? You may have carried more guilt.

All right.

Well, Vicki, thank you so much for giving us a ring.

Thank you.

That’s very interesting. And where did the word kip come from?

Oh, it’s from British dialects.

Oh, all right.

Thank you.

Yeah, so it’s got a good, strong history. Predates probably the founding of the United States.

Hey, Vicki, thank you so much for calling.

Thank you.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

We love those questions about words from your childhood. Call us and talk about it. The number is 1-877-929-9673. That’s 1-877-WAYWORD. Or you can send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.