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.