Choppin

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. An informal spelling of chopping, meaning cutting something into pieces with repeated blows of a blade
2. Dialect or casual spelling for the act of hacking food or wood into smaller pieces with a knife or axe
3. Informal form of the verb to chop, describing the repeated striking that splits or cuts an object apart

Etymology: The name is most familiar as a term for a high-soled shoe. In Spain, a "chapín" was a wooden-soled shoe, and the Italian and French forms "chopine" spread from there. Some wearers, especially in Venice, used platforms tall enough to lift them well above the street, and a wearer often needed a servant on each side to walk steadily. The same spelling also names an old measure of liquid, used in Scotland. It is the Scots form of the French "chopine," a unit of about a pint or a bit more, and in that sense the word is about how much a drinker was served rather than what they stood on. Whether the two senses share a single root is uncertain. The shoe sense is clearly traceable to Spanish, but the origin of the measure sense is less certain, and the two may have come together through French by coincidence in form.