Etymograph

English

clip

Clip comes from Old English clyppan ‘to hug, embrace, cherish, clasp’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *gelb(ʰ)-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gelb(ʰ)-reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*klupjanąreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150clyppan‘to hug, embrace, cherish, clasp’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500clippen
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1580sclip

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gelb(ʰ)-reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*klupjanąreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150clyppan‘to hug, embrace, cherish, clasp’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500clippen
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1580sclip

Earliest quotation: c. 1580s, Philip Sidney, Astrophel and Stella: “But finding theſe North climes do coldly him embrace,…”

Every English word from Proto-Indo-European *gelb(ʰ)-

Another origin of clip

  1. Old Norsec. 800–1350klippa‘to clip, cut the hair, shear sheep’
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500clippen
  3. Englishtodayclip

Today it means

verb To grip tightly.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *gelb(ʰ)- / clip

Shirt and support for this word