dapper
pronunciation
How to pronounce dapper in British English:
UK [ˈdæpə(r)]
How to pronounce dapper in American English:
US ['dæpər]
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- Adjective:
- marked by smartness in dress and manners
Word Origin
- dapper
- dapper: [15] Modern English dapper connotes neatness, alertness, and liveliness, but its etymological significance as revealed by distant relatives such as Old High German tapfar ‘heavy’, Old Prussian debīkan ‘large’, and Old Slavic debelu ‘thick’, is ‘heavy’. The notion of ‘weightiness’ spread to ‘firmness, endurance in battle’, and hence ‘courage’ (German tapfer and Dutch dapper both mean ‘brave’). English acquired the word, with an apparently ironical change of meaning, from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German dapper ‘heavy, stout, bold’.
- dapper (adj.)
- mid-15c., "elegant," from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German dapper "bold, strong, sturdy," later "quick, nimble," from Proto-Germanic *dapraz, perhaps with ironical shift of meaning (cognates: Old High German tapfar "heavy," German tapfer "brave"), from PIE root *dheb- "dense, firm, compressed."
Example
- 1. Mr ohtsubo , 64 , is dapper and intense in conversation .
- 2. Tools to dapper , all equipment shall not be more than ten kilograms .
- 3. The likes of john gotti , also known as the dapper don and teflon don ( nothing stuck to him ) , reinforced the image .
- 4. When I saw this dapper dan in a rolls royce .
- 5. The commando dependent dapper weapons , temporarily occupied tunnel , will the guerrillas force to the nearby villages tunnels .