Also 5 iaape, iappe, 6 iaip, (gape), 7 jap. [Jape sb. and vb. are known from the 14th c.; it is not certain whether the vb. or the sb. came first; their derivation is obscure.
In form the vb. agrees with OF. japer, mod.F. japper to yelp (as a dog), whence there was also the (rare) sb. jap, and japerie yelping: but there appears no approach of sense between this and the Eng. word. On the other hand, jape is nearly identical in sense with OF. gaber, ‘to mock, deride, laugh at,’ whence there were the sbs. gab and gabe, also gaberie, ‘mockery, raillery, pleasantry,’ gabere, gabeor, ‘mocker’; but (notwithstanding a single instance of jaber in Godef.), no known phonetic laws enable us to connect gabe- and jape-. The suggestion has been made that the two French verbs are combined in the English vb.; but of such a process we have no evidence.
From its use in sense 2, the vb. began to be held impolite or indecent in 16th c. (so in Bale, Speght’s Gloss. to Chaucer, and esp. Puttenham), was avoided by polite writers, and soon became obsolete. The sb. had the same fate. Both have been revived in 19th c., in sense 2 of the sb., 4 of the vb.]
† 1. trans. To trick, beguile, befool, deceive. Obs.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. I. 65. Fader of falsness … Iudas he Iapede with þe Iewes seluer.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 871. Thus hath he iaped thee ful many a yer, And thou hast maked hym thy chief squier.
c. 1400. Beryn, 3458. He hath but I-Iapid us, and scornyd her to fore.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 186. Y wyl bewar … That of no Fowlar y wil no more be Iaped.
1463. Marg. Paston, in P. Lett., II. 142. I wold not he shuld iape hyr, for she menythe good feythe, and yf he wolle not have hyr, late me wete in haste.
† 2. To seduce (a woman); to know carnally. Obs.
1382. Pol. Poems (Rolls), I. 270. Sle thi fadre, and iape thi modre, and thai wyl the assoile.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 4415. Iupitir a Iettoure þat Iapid many ladis.
c. 1530. Hickscorner, in Hazl., Dodsley, I. 171. He iaped my wife, and made me cuckold.
1576. Durham Depos. (Surtees), 312. He had rather that any man should gape his owne wif then kysse Jane Slaiter mowthe.
b. intr. To have carnal intercourse. Obs.
a. 1450. Cov. Myst., xii. (Shaks. Soc.), 118. Goddys childe! thou lyist, in fay: God dede nevyr jape so with may.
1572. Gascoigne, To Barth. Withipoll, Wks. (1587), 151. First in thy jorney iape not overmuch. What laughest thou Bat bycause I write so plaine?… Methinks plaine dealing biddeth me to cast Thys bone at first amid my doggrell rime.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, III. xxii. (Arb.), 260.
† 3. trans. To mock, deride, insult. Obs. in 16th c., but occasionally used in 18–19th c.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 191. But þou iapyst god & scornyst him.
c. 1450. Mirour Saluacioun, 118. Xristis visage hidde was dispisid Japed and all bespitted.
1730. Fenton, Knt. of Shield. Urge not the wags to sneer and jape us.
1822. T. Mitchell, Arist., II. 179. The sons of Pronapus … Oft jape us.
4. intr. To say or do something in jest or mockery; to jest, joke, jeer; to make game, make fun, sport. Obs. c. 1550; revived in 19th c.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troilus, I. 262 (318). Repentynge hym þat he hadde euere y-Iaped Of loues folk. Ibid., II. 1115 (1164). And he gan at hym self to Iape faste.
c. 1450. Merlin, iv. 66. I trowe ye do but iape.
1483. Caxton, G. de la Tour, A v b. There was a grete noyse and the men and wymmen iaped togeder eche with other.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. ccxxxiii. 324. Howe is it that my lorde the prince iapeth and mocketh thus with me?
1530. Palsgr., 265 b. I dyd but iape with hym & he toke it in good ernest.
1552. Huloet, Iape or iest.
1858. Morris, Sir P. Harpdon’s End, 68. What have I done that he should jape at me?
1879. Green, Read. Eng. Hist., xxvii. 142. The Host in the Tales japes at him for his lonely, abstracted air.
Hence Japing vbl. sb. and ppl. a.; Japingly adv., in a japing manner; † Japing-stick, a laughing-stock, a butt for jokes.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. I. 410. Sum men … feden her wittis wiþ sensible þingis and ȝaping of childis gamen.
c. 1380. in Rel. Ant., II. 50. How mowen thei be more takyn in idil than whanne thei ben maad mennus japynge stikke, as when thei ben pleyid of japeris?
a. 1420. Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 3768. Demostenus his hondes ones putte In a wommans bosome japyngly.
c. 1440. Generydes, 6135. Generides in Iaping said agayn.
1494. Fabyan, Chron., VI. clviii. 147. Bernulphus … made thereof dyuerse scoffys and iapynge rymes.
1664. Cotton, Scarron., I. Wks. (1765), 25. And said in merry kind of japping Indeed sirs have I ta’ne you napping?
