sb. Forms: 4–6 tipet, 4–7 typet, (4 typeth, 4–5 tepet), 5 typett, -itte; 5–6 typ-, 6 tipp-, typpett(e, 6–7 typpet, tippit, 7 tipit; 4– tippet; also Sc. 5 tipat (tuppat), 5–6 tipp-, typp-, typat, tepat, -e. [Origin uncertain; some suggest identity with OE. tæpped, tæppet, *tęped (pl. tæppedu, tepedu) carpet, hanging, etc. = OHG. teppid, -ith, -it, tepid, -it: both ad. L. tapēte (-a, -um) a carpet, tapestry hanging, bed-cover, table-cover. But there are great difficulties both of phonology and of sense. Others suggest a derivative of TIP sb.1 See Note below.]
1. a. A long narrow slip of cloth or hanging part of dress, formerly worn, either attached to and forming part of the hood, head-dress, or sleeve, or loose, as a scarf or the like. Obs. exc. Hist.
c. 1300. in Langtoft’s Chron., in Pol. Songs (Camden), 303. For he haves ovirhipped, Hise tipet [v.r. typeth] is typped, Hise tabard es tome.
[1342. Concilium Lond., c. 2. Et caputiis cum tipettis miræ longitudinis.]
c. 1386. Chaucer, Reeve’s T., 33. On haly dayes biforn hir [his wife] wolde hee [Symkyn] go With his typet y-bounde about his heed.
1401. Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 69. What meenith thi tipet, Jakke, as longe as a stremer, that hangith longe bihinde, and kepith thee not hoot?
14[?]. Beryn, 662. He wissh a-wey the blood, And bond the sorys to his hede with the typet of his hood.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 494/2. Typett, liripipium [a long band or scarf (Du Cange)].
1463. Bury Wills (Camden), 41. My tepet of blak sarsenet.
1473–4. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 16. j1/2 elne of vellous for ij tuppatis to the King. Ibid., 17. A typpat to the King. Ibid. (1502), II. 197. For ane tepat and ane belt to the King.
1532–3. Act 24 Hen. VIII., c. 13 § 2. It shalbe lefull to all … Doctors of the one Lawe or the other … to weare … blacke saten, in their tippittes.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 7. Their heades rouled in pleasauntes and typpets lyke the Egipcians.
a. 1626. Bacon, New Atl. (1650), 6. His Turban was white with a small red Crosse on the Topp. He had also a Tippet of fine Linnen.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 12/1. The Tippet [of a Hood] hangs from the hinder part of the Crown, and reacheth backwards to the ground. Ibid. A French Hood … having the Flap or Tippet hanging down the wearers Back, may be termed a Mourning-hood.
1756. Nugent, Gr. Tour, France, IV. 81. The students [of the Sorbonne] … are qualified for the degree of batchelors, and wear lambskins and tippets two years.
1834. Planché, Brit. Costume, 128. From the sleeves of this cote … depended long slips of cloth,… which were called tippets.
b. A garment, usually of fur or wool, covering the shoulders, or the neck and shoulders; a cape or short cloak, often with hanging ends. Now worn chiefly by women and girls, or by men as a part of certain official costumes.
In many early quots. (omitted here), a and b are not distinguishable.
1481. Caxton, Myrr., III. xvi. 172. They be not alle clerkes that haue short typettis.
1554. Turner, Sel. Rec. Oxford, 219. [He] shall weare … a typpet of velvett as other Aldermen have accustomyd yn thoffyce of Mayraltie to do.
1684–5. Wood, Life, in Feb. (O.H.S.), III. 128. The mayor with his scarlet, and stole or tippet over it.
1686. Lond. Gaz., No. 2115/4. Lost a Sable Tippet with scarlet and silver strings to it.
1709–10. Addison, Tatler, No. 116, ¶ 9. The Lynx shall cast its Skin at her Feet to make her a Tippet.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, i. She had furry articles for winter wear, as tippets, boas, and muffs.
1880. Miss Braddon, Just as I am, iii. She gave the village children smart hats and tippets for summer.
c. Eccl. A band of silk or other material worn round the neck, with the two ends pendent from the shoulders in front; = SCARF sb.1 2.
1530. Palsgr., 281/2. Typpet for a preest, cornette.
a. 1555. Bradford, in Coverdale, Lett. Mart. (1564), 441. If God’s word had place … Priestes should be otherwise knowen then by their shauen crownes and typets.
1588. Marprel. Epist. (Arb.), 9. Your corner caps and tippets will do nothing in this poynt.
1604. Const. & Canons Eccles., § 58. It shall be lawful for such Ministers as are not Graduates to wear upon their Surplices, instead of Hoods, some decent Tippet of black, so it be not silk.
1617. Minsheu, Ductor, Tippet, or habit which Vniuersitie men and Clergie men weare ouer their gownes L. Epitogium.
1678. Phillips (ed. 4), Tippet, a certain long Scarf which Doctors of Divinity wear when they go abroad in their Gowns.
a. 1750. T. Gordon, Cordial for Low Spirits (1751), II. 78. I cannot for my heart think, that a Piece of Lawn, or a red Tippet, can make men holier than their neighbours.
1870. Disraeli, Lothair, vi. He … wore … over his cassock a purple tippet.
1903. P. Dearmer, Parson’s Handbk. (new ed.), 128. There are many clergymen in Ireland … who can still remember the ecclesiastical scarf called a tippet…. The Canons on the subject must be misunderstood when the modern foreign idea of a short cape [see 1 b] is read into the word tippet.
1903. Church Times, 11 Dec., 784/2. A deacon is entitled, like any other clergyman, to wear the broad black tippet, or scarf, over his surplice.
d. Applied to a part of ancient or mediæval armor: = CAMAIL 1. rare.
c. 1400. Melayne, 960. The Bischoppe gart hym with a spere Appon his tepet lighte.
1845. C. H. Smith, in Kitto’s Cycl. Bibl. Lit., I. 226/2. In Egypt … a more ancient national form was a kind of thorax, tippet,… or square, with an opening in it for the head, the four points covering the breast, back, and both upper arms.
1869. Boutell, Arms & Arm., viii. (1874), 127. The camail … is the lower part of a mail coif, a hood, or a tippet of mail, which was fixed to the basinet, and hung gracefully over the shoulders, covering the upper part of the body-armour.
† e. Phr. To turn (one’s) tippet: to change one’s course or behavior completely; in bad sense, to act the turncoat or renegade. Obs.
1546. J. Heywood, Prov. (1867), 44. So turned they their typpets by way of exchaunge, From laughyng to lowryng.
1563. Foxe, A. & M., 1049/2. He changed his typpette, and played the Apostata.
a. 1577. Gascoigne, Flowers (1587), 18. Those trifling bookes from whose lewde lore my tippet here I turne.
1598–9. B. Jonson, Case is Altered, III. iii. You, to turn tippet! fie, fie!
1650. Trapp, Comm. Exod., xii. 38. Strangers, that took hold of the skirts of these Jews … but afterwards turned tippet.
† 2. A jocular name for a hangman’s rope: usually Tyburn tippet (also Sc. St. Johnston’s tippet: cf. RIBAND sb. 3 a). Obs.
1462[?]. Paston Lett., II. 86. The seide Perys tyed by an halter…. This is a presoner, ye may knowe by his tepet and steff.
1549. Latimer, 2nd Serm. bef. Edw. VI. (Arb.), 63. He should haue had a Tiburne tippet, a halpeny halter, and all suche proude prelates.
c. 1592. Marlowe, Jew of Malta, IV. iv. When the hangman had put on his hempen tippet, he made such haste to his prayers.
1680. C. Nesse, Church Hist., 143. The cart at Tyburn drives away when the tippet is fast about the necks of the condemned.
1814. Scott, Wav., xxxix. As I hae dealt a’ my life in halters, I think nae mickle o’ putting my craig in peril of a St. Johnstone’s tippet. Ibid. (1823), Quentin D., vi. Were I to be hanged myself, no other should tie tippet about my craig.
3. An organ or formation in animals resembling or suggesting a tippet; in birds, dogs, etc. = RUFF sb.2 3; in insects = PATAGIUM c.
1815. [implied in tippet cuckoo, in 5].
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., III. xxxv. 539. The tegulæ that cover the base of the primary wings of insects of this Order … are what … I have called in the table patagia, or tippets.
18[?]. Mrs. Cameron, Little Dog Flora, 8. A very small dog … covered with long brown hair, with its tippet and feet quite white.
1866. Dk. Argyll, Reign of Law, v. (1871), 236. A species of Lophorius with a tippet of emerald spangles.
1872. Coues, N. Amer. Birds, 18. Conspicuous among these are the ruffs, or tippets, of some birds.
4. Angling. a. A length of twisted hair or gut forming part of a fishing-line. Sc. b. Part of an artificial fly: see quot. 1867, and cf. 3.
1825. Jamieson, Tippet. 1. One length of twisted hair or gut in a fishing-line.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, x. (1880), 343. The wing is composed of a white ribbed snipe’s feather, with longish tippets on either side.
1908. Dundee Advertiser, 26 Oct., 8. We came upon a young fisherman ‘makin’ tippits,’ as he explained. The tippit is of horse-hair, woven in thin strands, knotted at either end.
5. attrib. and Comb., as tippet armor (cf. d), -box; tippet-like adj.; † tippet-captain, knight, man, contemptuous nicknames for a priest or ecclesiastic (cf. 1 c); so † tippet-scuffle nonce-wd., an ecclesiastical wrangle; tippet cuckoo, grouse, names for species of these birds having a ‘tippet’ or ruff (cf. 3); tippet-grebe, a species of grebe, of which the skin, with the feathers on, is used for tippets.
1845. C. H. Smith, in Kitto’s Cycl. Bibl. Lit., I. 226/2. The late Roman legionaries, as published by Du Choul, again wear the *tippet armour, like that of the Egyptians.
1694. Lond. Gaz., No. 2980/4. Left in a Hackney-Coach…, a Wainscot *Tippet-Box with 2 Tippets, one Sable,… the other black Ribbond.
1550. Bale, Apol., 104. Thys *typpet captayne, in bringing fourth here S. Augustynes authoryte … is like to be pearced through wyth hys owne weapon.
1815. Stephens, in Shaw’s Gen. Zool., IX. I. 112. *Tippet Cuckow.
1776. Pennant, Brit. Zool., II. 418. *Tippet Grebe…. The under side of them being drest with the feathers on, are made into muffs and tippets; each bird sells for about fourteen shillings.
1829. Col. Hawker, Diary (1893), I. 352. I knocked down a tippet grebe.
1550. Bale, Eng. Votaries, II. L iij. The order of portasse men, *tippet knyghtes, or new shauen Syr Ihons.
1839. Penny Cycl., XIII. 439/2. A small *tippet-like appendage … on each side … at the base of the wings.
1550. Bale, Eng. Votaries, II. L iij. The first order of *tippet men, or secular priests.
1641. Milton, Reform., II. Wks. 1851, III. 54. To make a Nationall Warre of a Surplice Brabble, a *Tippet-scuffle.
Hence Tippet v., intr. to wear a tippet; trans. to furnish or adorn with a tippet; † Tippeter, a member of New College, Oxford, who wore a tippet: see quot. and context.
1563. Becon, Acts Christ & Antichr., § 22 Wks. III. 398 b. Antichrist hath his Chaplens knowen by docking & doucking,… by *tippeting and gowning.
1889. Doyle, Micah Clarke, xvii. 155. Sweeping gowns of black silk trimmed and tippeted with costly furs.
a. 1677. in Rashdall & Rait, New College, vi. (1901), 156. We call it a Habit, such as New College *Tippiters alwaies wore above their gownes. Ibid. (1901). Who constituted this class of tippeters we are unable to explain.
[Note. The normal and regular repr. of OE. tæppet down to 1600 was TAPET; and phonetic development of i out of a would be abnormal; the rare ME. tepet and Sc. tepat are prob. from tipet. The ordinary meaning of the OE. and ME. word, and of the OHG., was ‘carpet,’ as in Latin, but in Ælfric’s Vocabulary, tæppet occurs under the heading Vestium Nomina, as if a name of a garment. Yet the gloss ‘Sipla an healfhruh tæppet,’ seems to come from the same source as one in the 15th-c. Nominale, under the heading De Lectis et Ornamentis corum, ‘Hec amphicapa est tapeta ex utraque parte villosa. Hec sipha idem est’ (Wr.-W. 744/5), where the sipha or tapeta is evidently a bedcover; so that the Ælfric entry is prob. placed under the wrong heading. A change of meaning from ‘carpet’ or ‘bedcover’ to the senses above, is very improbable. Derivation of tippet from tip is favored by the fact that Ger. zipfel, orig. diminutive of zipf ‘tip,’ has the senses ‘tip, point, end, lappet, tail,’ etc.]
