dapper

From Middle English daper (“pretty, neat”), from Middle Dutch dapper (“stalwart, nimble”), Old Dutch *dapar, from Proto-Germanic *dapraz (“stout; solid; heavy; bold”) (compare German tapfer "bold", Norwegian daper "saddened, dreary"), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeb- ‘thick, heavy’ (compare Tocharian A tpär ‘high’, Latvian dàbls ‘strong’, Serbo-Croatian дебео (dèbeo) ‘fat’).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdæpə(ɹ)/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æpə(ɹ)

dapper (comparative dapperer, superlative dapperest)

1. Neat, trim.
   • 1892, Henry Seton Merriman, The Slave Of The Lamp:

     This entrance is through a little courtyard, in which is the stable and coach-house combined, where Madame Perinere, a lady who paints the magic word "Modes" beneath her name on the door-post of number seventeen, keeps the dapper little cart and pony which carry her bonnets to the farthest corner of Paris.

2. Stylishly dressed, neatly dressed, spiffy.
   • 1917, P. G. Wodehouse, The Man With Two Left Feet:

     Going down the street, you would meet a typical commercial traveller, dapper and alert.

3. Quick; little and active.

• Eppard, adprep, parped, rapped

From Dutch dapper, from Middle Dutch dapper, from Old Dutch *dappar, from Proto-Germanic *dapraz.

• Audio:

  (file)

dapper (attributive dapper, comparative dapperder, superlative dapperste)

1. brave, courageous

• dapperheid

From Middle Dutch dapper, from Old Dutch *dappar, from Proto-Germanic *dapraz.

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɑ.pər/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: dap‧per
• Rhymes: -ɑpər

dapper (comparative dapperder, superlative dapperst)

1. brave, courageous

• dapperheid
• verdapperen

• Afrikaans: dapper
• Negerhollands: tapper

• van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “dapper”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute