jape

See also: japé

English

WOTD – 1 April 2012

Etymology

From Middle English japen (“to deceive, play tricks on; act foolishly, joke; have sex with”), of uncertain origin, but perhaps combining Old French japer (“to bark, howl, scream; chatter, gossip”) with gaber (“to mock, deride”).

See also gab, Old Occitan japar, jaupar (“to bark, yelp, yap”), related to Old Saxon galpōn (“to cry loudly, make a noise, brag”) (Low German galpen (“to bark, howl, scream”)), Middle High German gelpfen (“to scream, bark, boast, proclaim”), Old Norse gjálpa (“to yelp”) (dialectal Swedish galpa (“to cry, screech”)). More at yelp, yawp, yap.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d͡ʒeɪp/
• Rhymes: -eɪp

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

jape (plural japes)

1. A joke or quip.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:joke

   • 1920, Jeffery Farnol, The Geste of Duke Jocelyn, Fytte 9:

     [H]e clapped hand to thigh, and laughed and laughed until the air rang again.

     "Oho, a jape—a jape indeed!" he roared.

   • 2022 August 9, Ayo Edebiri & Shana Gohd, “Private School” (5:57 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows‎^[1], season 4, episode 5, spoken by Laszlo Cravensworth (Matt Berry):

     “Now I come to think of it, I suppose schooling isn't such a bad idea as long as he can have some japes and tomfoolery with his young cohorts.” “My love, it will be very good for him and very good for us.”

2. A prank or trick.
   • 1989, Greil Marcus, “The Art of Yesterday's Crash”, in Lipstick Traces, Faber & Faber, published 2009:

     In London or New York in the late 1970s dada meant what it meant in Paris and New York at the end of the First World War: a not-quite-naked prank, a jape clothed in the barest g-string of aesthetic authority, a Bronx cheer in three-part harmony, Tzara's affirmation of the right “to piss and shit in different colors.”

Derived terms

• bejape
• japery

Translations

joke or quip — see joke

Verb

jape (third-person singular simple present japes, present participle japing, simple past and past participle japed)

1. (intransitive) To jest; play tricks.

   Synonyms: joke; see also Thesaurus:jest

   • 1886, Andrew Lang, “To Sir John Manndeville”, in Letters to Dead Authors:

     Now the Lond of Egypt longeth to the Soudan, yet the Soudan longeth not to the Lond of Egypt. And when I say this, I do jape with words, and may hap ye understond me not.

2. (transitive) To mock; deride.

   Synonyms: gibe, trick, befool, make fun of, razz; see also Thesaurus:mock

3. (obsolete) To have sexual intercourse with.

   Synonyms: coitize, go to bed with, sleep with; see also Thesaurus:copulate with

   • 1510, Hycke Scorner; “Hickscorner”, in Robert Dodsley, William Carew Hazlitt, editors, A Select Collection of Old English Plays, 4th edition, volume 1, London: Reeves and Turner, 1874, page 171:

     Nay, brother, lay hand on him soon; / For he japed my wife, and made me cuckold.

   • 1530, John Palsgrave, L'esclarcissement de la Langue Francoyse, Paris: Impremierie Nationale, published 1852, page 589:

     I jape a wench […] it is better to jape a wenche than to do worce.

   • 1540, Sir David Lyndsay, Ane Pleasant Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis, lines 323–324; republished in The Poetical Works of Sir David Lyndsay, volume 2, 1879, page 23:

     Thair is ane hundreth heir sittand by / That luiffis geaping als weill as I.

   • c. 1550, Alexander Scott, Poems, published 1821, page 26:

     Sum gois so gymp in gyis / Or sche war kissit plane, / Sche leir be japit thryis.

   • 1598, Florio, Worlde of Wordes:

     Fottere. To jape, to sard, to fucke, to swive, to occupye.

Anagrams

• Peja

Middle English

Alternative forms

• iape

Etymology

Perhaps combining Old French japer (“to bark, howl, scream; chatter, gossip”) with gaber (“to mock, deride”).

Noun

jape (plural japes)

1. trick, deception, fraud, disastrous event
2. delusion, magical or diabolical illusion
3. false legend
4. joke; comic tale; amusement
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “(please specify the story)”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC:

     Thow pardoner […] Tel vs som myrthe or iapes right anon.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

5. trifling matter