dap
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /dæp/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - Rhymes: -æp
Etymology 1
Onomatopoeic, from the sound made when a person runs while wearing daps.
Noun
dap (plural daps)
- (West Country, Somerset, Bristol, Wales, usually in the plural) A plimsoll.
- 1988, Alan Hollinghurst, The Swimming-Pool Library, paperback edition, London: Penguin, OCLC 17841394, page 169:
- I somehow expected them to shout obscenities, and was glad I had come ordinarily dressed, in a sports shirt, an old linen jacket, jeans and daps.
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Verb
dap (third-person singular simple present daps, present participle dapping, simple past and past participle dapped)
Etymology 2

US 1971,[1] originally by black soldiers during the Vietnam war,[2] associated with Black Power movement. Originally an elaborate handshake, later specifically a fistbump.
Verb originally give dap. Presumably onomatopoeic,[3] or influenced by tap, dab,[4] etc. Alternatively, from earlier slang usage as abbreviation of dapper. Also explained as an acronym, such as “Dignity for Afro People”[5] or “Dignity And Pride”;[6] this may be a backronym or unrelated,[4] but accords with phrasal use as “give DAP” (compare “give respect”). More speculative etymologies derive it from Vietnamese đẹp (“beautiful”),[7] though this is unlikely.
Noun
dap (plural daps)
Verb
dap (third-person singular simple present daps, present participle dapping, simple past and past participle dapped)
- To greet with a dap.
Derived terms
Further reading
giving dap on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English (2009), p. 271
References
- Mark Jury, The Vietnam photo book (1971), p. 27
- The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English, p. 271
- Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “dap”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
- Cassell's Dictionary of Slang, p. 383
- Donald Kirk, Tell it to the Dead: Stories of a War (1975), p. 235
- Hamilton, LaMont (2014). "Five on the Black Hand Side: Origins and Evolutions of the Dap." Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. Smithsonian Institution.
- Encyclopedia of African American History, p. 1080
Rawang
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /tɑp̚˥/
Yola
References
- Jacob Poole (1867), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, page 33
Zhuang
Pronunciation
- (Standard Zhuang) IPA(key): /taːp˧˥/
- Tone numbers: dap7
- Hyphenation: dap