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.
   • 1913 June–December, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Plot That Failed”, in The Return of Tarzan, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, […], published March 1915, →OCLC, page 71:

     “It is too bad that monsieur has been troubled,” said Tarzan, turning to the newspaper man. “I bid monsieur good evening,” and he bowed the dapper young man out of the room, and closed the door in his face.

   • 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