To have a KIP

Posted by Bruce Kahl 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"?

The last time I heard "flophouse" used was in 1967 uttered by my future wife as a description of my living quarters that was situated on the very very lower east side of Manhattan. Some Hari Krishna types were on the top floor, we "revolutionaries" were on the middle floors and some Hells Angels baddies had some sort of drug factory in the basement that spewed forth such noxious fumes.