Tip

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /tɪp/

Definitions

1. The pointed or rounded end of something, or a small amount of money given for service
2. The end of an object that is pointed or rounded, as well as a gratuity given to someone for their service or advice
3. A rounded or pointed extremity of an item, along with a small monetary gift offered in appreciation for services rendered

Etymology: Not a single Old English text uses "tip." The word for the pointed end of a thing, which every English speaker now takes for granted, turns up only in the late 1300s, spelled "tippe." Its likeliest source is Middle Low German or Middle Dutch "tip," meaning the utmost point or extremity. A Scandinavian origin has also been proposed, comparing Old Norse "typpi." It was probably borrowed, though the origin remains uncertain. The family is large: Dutch "tip," Low German "Tip" and "Tippel," Saterland Frisian "Tip," Danish "tip," Swedish "tipp," and Icelandic "typpi," which means a knob, a pin, or a penis. In the south of the German-speaking world, the old "t" went through the High German consonant shift, which turned it into "z." So dialectal German says "Zipf," and standard German keeps the diminutive "Zipfel," the corner of a cloth or the end of a sausage. The same shift separates English "tap" (Old English "tæppa," a spigot) from German "Zapfen." The group may ultimately be kin to "top," but that is unproven. In English the noun first named the extreme end of something long and thin, often rounded rather than sharp. Early writers used it for the end of a toe, then of a tongue, a finger, an arrow, a pen. From the same idea came "tiptoe," standing on the very ends of one's feet. English also acquired several other words with the same spelling, and dictionaries are not sure they belong to one family. The verb meaning to topple may come from Low German or Scandinavian (compare Swedish "tippa," to topple over), or it may be a special use of the pointed end, as if something were tilted onto its point. The verb for striking lightly is recorded by the 1500s and is also of uncertain origin. The coin you leave a waiter began in thieves' slang, where the verb meant to give or pass something over. By the early eighteenth century it meant handing over a small gratuity. The private hint, as in a racing tip or a tip-off to the police, followed by the mid-nineteenth century. A well-known story says the gratuity sense comes from a sign reading "To Insure Promptitude." It is a myth. The word was in use long before anyone thought to explain it as an acronym, and words built from initials were almost unknown in English until the twentieth century. The real history runs back through thieves' slang and perhaps, as the Oxford English Dictionary suggests, to the pointed end itself.

Synonyms: hint, advice, suggestion

Antonyms: misguidance