- hop (v.1)
- Old English hoppian "to spring, leap; to dance; to limp," from Proto-Germanic *hupnojan (source also of Old Norse hoppa "hop, skip," Dutch huppen, German hüpfen "to hop"). Transitive sense from 1791. Related: Hopped; hopping. Hopping-john "stew of bacon with rice and peas" attested from 1838. Hopping mad is from 1670s.
- hop (n.1)
- usually hops, type of twining vine whose cones are used in brewing, etc., mid-15c., from Middle Dutch hoppe "the hop plant," from Proto-Germanic *hupnan- (source also of Old Saxon -hoppo, German Hopfen), of uncertain origin origin, perhaps from PIE root *(s)keup- "cluster, tuft, hair of the head," for its "tuftlike inflorescence." Medieval Latin hupa, Old French hoppe, French houblon are from Dutch.
- hop (n.2)
- "opium," 1887, from Cantonese nga-pin (pronounced HAH-peen) "opium," a Chinese folk etymology of the English word opium, literally "crow peelings." Re-folk-etymologized back into English by association with hop (n.1).
- hop (n.3)
- "a small jump, a leap on one foot," c. 1500, from hop (v.). Slang sense of "informal dancing party" is from 1731 (defined by Johnson as "a place where meaner people dance"). Meaning "short flight on an aircraft" is from 1909. Hop, skip, and jump (n.) is recorded from 1760 (hop, step, and jump from 1719).
This word [hop] has always been used here as in England as a familiar term for dance; but of late years it has been employed among us in a technical sense, to denote a dance where there is less display and ceremony than at regular balls. [Bartlett, "Dictionary of Americanisms," 1848]
- hop (v.2)
- "treat with hops," 1570s (implied in hopped), from hop (n.1).
