▪ I. † hepe Obs. rare.
[Identical with MHG., MLG. hepe, early mod.Du. heepe, Du. heep sickle-shaped pruning-knife or bill; other forms of which are MHG., MLG. heppe, mod.Ger. heppe, hippe, OHG. habba, happa, hęppa:—*happja:—OTeut. *haƀjôn, f. pre-Teut. root kop-, whence prob. Gr. κοπίς chopper, cleaver, broad curved knife. As there is no cognate word in OE., its appearance in Gower, and this app. in a proverbial phrase (cf. ‘by hook or by crook’ under hook), is not easy to account for.]
A curved pruning-knife.
| 1390 Gower Conf. II. 223 So what with hepe and what with crok(e) They make her maister often winne. |
▪ II. hepe
obs. form of heap, hip.