▪ I. jape, n.
(dʒeɪp)
Also 5 chape, iappe, 6 iaip, 7–9 Sc. jaip.
[See jape v.]
† 1. A trick, a device to deceive or cheat. Obs. since c 1515, but used by Scott.
| 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 864, & ȝe ar iolyf gentylmen your iapes ar ille. Ibid. C. 57 Did not Ionas in Iude suche Iape sum-whyle? c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 12 Ȝif þei maken wyues and oþer wymmen hure sustris bi lettris of fraternite or oþere iapes. c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 705 With feyned flaterye and Iapes He made the person and the peple his Apes. 1496 Dives & Paup. (W. de W.) i. lvii. 99/1 The fende sholde dysceyue hym by Illusions & by Iapes. 1501 Douglas Pal. Hon. i. lxviii, Sair I dred me for some vther iaip. 1820 Scott Monast. x, Subjecting yourself..to the japes and mockeries of evil spirits. |
† b. Something used to deceive; a means of deception; a deception, fraud. Obs. rare.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy iii. 890 Iason for all þo Iapes hade nere his ioy lost, Hade his licour ben to laite. 1513 Douglas æneis ii. v. [iv.] 65 Turnand quhelis thai set in, by and by, Vnder the feit of this ilk bisnyng iaip [the wooden horse]. c 1600 J. Burel Pilgr. in Watson Coll. Poems (1706) II. 22 (Jam.) To haue an hole he had grit hast, Yit in the wood thair wes nane wast, To harberie that iaip. |
† c. With reference to sexual intercourse. Obs.
| 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 272, & en-gendered on hem Ieauntez with her Iapez ille. ? a 1600 J. T. Grim the Collier (1662) Prol., Heard you not never how an actor's wife..Coming in's [the devil's] way did chance to get a jape. |
2. A device to amuse; a merry or idle tale; a jest, joke, gibe. Obs. generally before 1600 (not used by Spenser, Shakes., or their contemporaries, and recorded in 17th c. Dicts. as an ‘Old Word’); revived in 19th c. in literary use by Lamb, Barham, etc. See note to the vb.
| c 1340 Cursor M. 21911 (Fairf.) To here how rouland faȝt & oliuere or of oþer iapis to roun. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xx. 144 Þanne lowgh lyf..and helde holynesse a iape and hendenesse a wastour. c 1386 Chaucer Pard. Prol. & T. 66, I preche so as ye han herd bifoore, And telle an hundred false Iapes moore. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) v. 17 Þai broght him furth..and made dance before þam and make iapes. c 1400 Promp. Parv. 257/1 Iape, nuga, frivolum, scur(r)ilitas. 1494 Fabyan Chron. vii. ccxxv. 252 He set all at noughte, & made of it a scoffe or a iape. c 1510 More Picus Wks. 14 The sayinges of wisemen thei repute for Iapes and very fables. 1611 R. Bradley Paneg. Verses in Coryat's Crudities, A crue of Apes Sporting themselves with their conceited Iapes About a Pedler that lay snorting by. 1678 Phillips (ed. 4) App., Jape (old word), a jest, jeer or sport. 1819 W. Tennant Papistry Storm'd (1827) 20 All hail, sweet son o' Nox! Father o' daffin, jaips, and jokes! 1830 Lamb Album Verses, To Louisa M ― v, The scoff, the banter, and the jape, And antics of my gamesome Ape. 1840 Barham Ingol. Leg., ‘Leech of Folkstone’, The bystanders well-pleased with the jape put upon him. 1882 Besant All Sorts viii. (1884) 70 The coy giggle of the young lady to whom he has imparted his latest merry jape. |
† 3. A trifle, toy, trinket, plaything. Obs.
| 1436 Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 172 The grete galees of Venees..Be wel laden wyth..Apes and iapes, and marmusettes taylede, Nifles, trifles, that litelle have availede. 1488 in Tytler Hist. Scot. (1864) II. 391 Item twa tuthpikis of gold, with a chenye,..ane hert of gold, with uther small Iapis. 1526 Skelton Magnyf. 1148 Fol. In faythe I wolde thou had a marmosete. Fan. Cockes harte I loue suche iapes. 1570 Satir. Poems Reform. xiii. 134 God wait gif ȝe be Iaips to hald in stoir, Or bony byrdis to keip in to ane Cage. |
4. Comb., as † jape-worthy a. Obs., ridiculous.
| c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. v. pr. iii. 122 (Camb. MS.) What difference is ther bytwixe the prescience and thilke Iape⁓worthi dyuynenge of tyresye the dyuynor. |
▪ II. jape, v.
(dʒeɪp)
Also 5 iaape, iappe, 6 iaip, (gape), 7 jap.
[Jape n. and vb. are known from the 14th c.; it is not certain whether the vb. or the n. came first; their derivation is obscure.
In form the vb. agrees with OF. japer, mod.F. japper to yelp (as a dog), whence there was also the (rare) n. jap, and japerie yelping: but there appears no approach of sense between this and the Eng. word. On the other hand, jape is nearly identical in sense with OF. gaber, ‘to mock, deride, laugh at’, whence there were the ns. gab and gabe, also gaberie, ‘mockery, raillery, pleasantry’, gabere, gabeor, ‘mocker’; but (notwithstanding a single instance of jaber in Godef.), no known phonetic laws enable us to connect gabe- and jape-. The suggestion has been made that the two French verbs are combined in the English vb.; but of such a process we have no evidence.
From its use in sense 2, the vb. began to be held impolite or indecent in 16th c. (so in Bale, Speght's Gloss. to Chaucer, and esp. Puttenham), was avoided by polite writers, and soon became obsolete. The n. had the same fate. Both have been revived in 19th c., in sense 2 of the n., 4 of the vb.]
† 1. trans. To trick, beguile, befool, deceive. Obs.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. i. 65 Fader of falsness..Iudas he Iapede with þe Iewes seluer. c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 871 Thus hath he iaped thee ful many a yer, And thou hast maked hym thy chief squier. c 1400 Beryn 3458 He hath but I-Iapid us, and scornyd her to fore. c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 186 Y wyl bewar..That of no Fowlar y wil no more be Iaped. 1463 Marg. Paston in P. Lett. II. 142, I wold not he shuld iape hyr, for she menythe good feythe, and yf he wolle not have hyr, late me wete in haste. |
† 2. To seduce (a woman); to know carnally. Obs.
| 1382 Pol. Poems (Rolls) I. 270 Sle thi fadre, and iape thi modre, and thai wyl the assoile. a 1400–50 Alexander 4415 Iupitir a Iettoure þat Iapid many ladis. c 1530 Hickscorner in Hazl. Dodsley I. 171 He iaped my wife, and made me cuckold. 1576 Durham Depos. (Surtees) 312 He had rather that any man should gape his owne wif then kysse Jane Slaiter mowthe. |
† b. intr. To have carnal intercourse. Obs.
| a 1450 Cov. Myst. xii. (Shaks. Soc.) 118 Goddys childe! thou lyist, in fay: God dede nevyr jape so with may. 1572 Gascoigne To Barth. Withipoll Wks. (1587) 151 First in thy jorney iape not overmuch. What laughest thou Bat bycause I write so plaine?..Methinks plaine dealing biddeth me to cast Thys bone at first amid my doggrell rime. 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xxii. (Arb.) 260. |
† 3. trans. To mock, deride, insult. Obs. in 16th c., but occasionally used in 18–19th c.
| c 1440 Jacob's Well 191 But þou iapyst god & scornyst him. c 1450 Mirour Saluacioun 118 Xristis visage hidde was dispisid Japed and all bespitted. 1730 Fenton Knt. of Shield, Urge not the wags to sneer and jape us. 1822 T. Mitchell Arist. II. 179 The sons of Pronapus..Oft jape us. |
4. intr. To say or do something in jest or mockery; to jest, joke, jeer; to make game, make fun, sport. Obs. c 1550; revived in 19th c.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus i. 262 (318) Repentynge hym þat he hadde euere y-Iaped Of loues folk. Ibid. ii. 1115 (1164) And he gan at hym self to Iape faste. c 1450 Merlin iv. 66, I trowe ye do but iape. 1483 Caxton G. de la Tour A v b, There was a grete noyse and the men and wymmen iaped togeder eche with other. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. ccxxxiii. 324 Howe is it that my lorde the prince iapeth and mocketh thus with me? 1530 Palsgr. 589/2, I dyd but jape with hym, and he toke it in good ernest. 1552 Huloet, Iape or iest. 1858 Morris Sir P. Harpdon's End 68 What have I done that he should jape at me? 1879 Green Read. Eng. Hist. xxvii. 142 The Host in the Tales japes at him for his lonely, abstracted air. |
Hence ˈjaping vbl. n. and ppl. a.; ˈjapingly adv., in a japing manner; † ˈjaping-stick, a laughing-stock, a butt for jokes.
| c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 410 Sum men..feden her wittis wiþ sensible þingis and ȝaping of childis gamen. c 1380 in Rel. Ant. II. 50 How mowen thei be more takyn in idil than whanne thei ben maad mennus japynge stikke, as when thei ben pleyid of japeris? a 1420 Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 3768 Demostenus his hondes ones putte In a wommans bosome japyngly. c 1440 Generydes 6135 Generides in Iaping said agayn. 1494 Fabyan Chron. vi. clviii. 147 Bernulphus..made thereof dyuerse scoffys and iapynge rymes. 1664 Cotton Scarron. i. Wks. (1765) 25 And said in merry kind of japping Indeed sirs have I ta'ne you napping? |