To have a KIP

Posted by Bob on August 01, 2001

In Reply to: To have a KIP posted by ESC on August 01, 2001

: : : To have a kip is accepted as to have a sleep. But where does the word KIP derive from? Having searched many references I have so far been unable to satisfy my curiosity.

: : : Can anyone help?

: : : Noel.

: : kip
: :
: : slang n. 1 sleep; nap. 2 bed or cheap lodgings. from the Danish kippe meaning hut
: :
: : The Pocket Oxford Dictionary of Current English, © Oxford University Press 1996

: :
: : The word kippe meant a brothel in 18th-century English, probably deriving from a similar Danish word signifying a low-class inn. In the 19th century the word was extended to denote a doss house, and by the early 20th century was acquiring its modern meanings. The word is not unknown in the USA but is much more commonly used in Britain.
: :
: : Bloomsbury Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, © Tony Thorne 1997

:
: : doss house n
: : a dormitory for vagrants or a cheap, shabby hotel.

: Like a "flophouse"?

Today, it's more genteel to say SRO, for "single room occupancy." For a while, cities were anxious to tear down SRO's, then they found out how socially useful they were (without them, the numbers of homeless on the streets grew) ... and so they started encouraging them again. Never heard the word kip, by the way.