Etymology: In 15th cent. typ , typpe , the former = Middle Low German, Middle Dutch, Low German, Dutch, East Frisian tip , Middle High German zipf , Danish, Norwegian tip , Swedish tipp , all = ‘point, extreme end, very top’. Not known in Old English, Old Norse, Old Saxon, or Old High German; but perhaps cognate with tip(p)en , tip v.¹, though the connection of sense is not clear. The modern cognate languages have in the same sense a derivative form < *tippul, Middle Dutch, Dutch, Middle Low German, Low German tippel, Middle High German, German zipfel. (So far as is known, tip has no etymological connection with top ; but the proximity of form and relative quality of sound in the two words have caused tip to be felt as denoting a thinner or more delicate top ; compare drip , drop , chip , chop , also tip-top n., adj., and adv.)

Etymology: apparently < tip v.¹

Etymology: < tip v.⁴ 2 (which occurs c1700).

Etymology: perhaps < tip v.¹, with the notion of tipping or lightly touching the arm or elbow of a person by way of a private hint, or < tip v.⁴ in the phrase to tip (any one) a wink.

Etymology: < tip v.² 1b, 2, 3.

Etymology: Perhaps < tip v.² 4 or 5; but possibly shortened < tipple n.¹

Etymology: Middle English (?) and 16th cent. tippe agrees in form and sense with Dutch, Low German, modern German tippen , Swedish tippa to strike, poke or touch smartly or lightly; of obscure origin, but perhaps from the same Germanic root as tip n.¹ Of this tip n.² is apparently a derivative. It is not certain that senses 2, 3 belong to the same word; sense 2 might be directly < tiptoe; but compare Old Norse tifa-sk ‘to move the feet quickly, to trip’, which Falk and Torp incline to refer to the same root.

Etymology: Origin and form-history obscure: known first in form tȳpe (14th cent.), tīpe , in literary use as late as 1632 (sense 8), and still dialectal from Cumbria to Shropshire and East Anglia. Tip with short vowel appears in 1581 (sense 7). The Middle English verb may have been tīpe , tipte , tipt (compare keep , kept , kept ), and the short i of the past have been later taken over into the present (perhaps under the influence of tip v.¹, though not necessarily so).

Etymology: < tip n.¹ But perhaps partly representing Old Norse typpa (Norwegian typpa) to tip or top, and Old Norse typptr (Norwegian typpt), tipped, topped.

Etymology: Originally Rogues' Cant, of obscure origin. (Possibly related to tip v.¹, through the notion of touching lightly, but this is very uncertain.)

Etymology: < tip n.⁴