English
chip
Chip comes from Old English *ċippian ‘to cut’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *kippōną.
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*kippōnąreconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*kippōnreconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150*ċippian‘to cut’reconstructed
- Old English, derivedc. 450–1150ċipp
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500chip
- Englishearliest quotation 1851chip
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*kippōnąreconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*kippōnreconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150*ċippian‘to cut’reconstructed
- Old English, derivedc. 450–1150ċipp
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500chip
- Englishearliest quotation 1851chip
Earliest quotation: 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick: “The universe is finished; the copestone is on, and…”.
The story
Noun from Middle English chip, chippe, from Old English ċipp (‘chip; small piece of wood, shaving’), from Old English *ċippian (‘to cut; hew’) – attested in Old English forċippian (‘to cut off’) –, from Proto-West Germanic *kippōn (‘to cut; carve; hack; chop’), from Proto-Germanic *kippōną (‘to chip, chop’), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵeyb- (‘to split; divide; germinate; sprout’). The formally similar Old English ċipp, ċypp, ċyp (‘a beam; log; stock; post’), from Proto-Germanic *kippaz (‘log; beam’) (whence Old Saxon kip (‘post’), Old High German kipfa, chipfa (‘axle, stave’), Old Norse keppr (‘cudgel, club’)) is a different, unrelated word either borrowed from Latin cippus (‘stake; pale; post’) or borrowed from the same source language as the Latin. Verb from Middle English chippen, from Old English *ċippian (‘to cut; hew’) – attested in Old English forċippian (‘to cut off’) – see above.
Linked words
through Middle English chip
Today it means
noun A small piece broken from a larger piece of solid material.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *kippōną / chip