Etymology: < chop v.¹ The senses fall into a number of groups derived from those of the verb, but having no mutual connection.

Etymology: Another form of chap n.²; and the more usual one in several senses. Choip in the quot. of 1505 (which occurs in a printed text of 1508) is the earliest trace of the word in any form: with this exception the chap form is evidenced earlier. The variation may have arisen from association with the other words in which chap varies with chop.

Etymology: < chop v.²

Etymology: < chop v.³

Etymology: < Hindi chhāp impression, print, stamp, brand, etc.: see Yule. The word has been carried by European traders to China, where it is now used in senses that have become obsolete in India.

Etymology: Compare chop v.⁶

Etymology: Another form of chap v.¹ The evidence of the quotations as to their relative priority in date is not decisive, nor is any trace of the word in either form to be found in Old English, or in the older stages of Germanic. Chap coincides in sense with Dutch kappen to chop, cut, mince, hew, lop, prune, late Middle Dutch cappen to hew off, chop off, Low German (whence modern German) kappen, Danish kappe, Swedish kappa to cut, chop. But the type to which these point is *kappôn, Old Germanic *kappôjan, and this would apparently have given in Old English only *cappian, since a before double stops followed by guttural vowel, did not give æ in primitive Old English. This again would have given Middle English and modern *cap; while the Old English type of chap would be *ceappian, *cæppian. Thus, the relationship of the English to the continental words cannot, at present, be made out. Chop and chap were subsequently somewhat differentiated, chop becoming the proper word for branches I and II, while III and IV are left to chap . In some respects, the use of the chop forms, especially in the noun (sense 2), suggests influence of French couper, in 13–15th cent. often coper; but whether the latter had, or could have, any influence on the rise or currency of the form chop is problematical.

Etymology: Appears before 1400 in the appellation choppe-churche , which implies earlier use of the verb, though the latter has been found first, in the phrase ‘to choppe and change’, late in the 15th cent. The history is not clear, but as chap v.² was of occasional earlier use in the same sense, it is not improbable that chop was merely a variant due to the circumstance that other words of the same form varied between chop and chap. There appears little reason to think that the Flemish kōpen, koopen, to sell, or its English form cope, or the Old Norse kaupa, or its Scots form coup, had anything to do with the origin of choppe. The difference between /koːp/ and /tʃɒp/ is great.