gup

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡʌp/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌp

Etymology 1

From Hindi गप (gap, “gossip; idle talk”).

Noun

gup (countable and uncountable, plural gups)

1. (India, colloquial) Gossip or rumor; nonsensical or silly talk; blather.
   • 1842 January, “Asiatic Intelligence – Bombay: State of Trade and Credit”, in The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China and Australasia, volume 37, number 145, London: Wm. H. Allen and Co., page 42:

     Should this lull continue much longer, the consequence will be, that the security of some mercantile houses, for some time on the wave, will fail; and, if we credit the gups in the bazar, the crisis is rapidly approaching.

   • 1912, Angus Hamilton, chapter 7, in In Abor Jungles: Being an Account of the Abor Expedition, the Mishmi Mission and the Miri Mission, London: Eveleigh Nash, page 138:

     Bazaar “gup,” too, speaking with the tongue of a lying jade on the eve of the expedition, had so added to the deadliness of the Abor reputation that one party of able-bodied men became panic-stricken when they realised the nature of the work before them, and disappeared in a night!

   • 2015, Nisid Hajari, chapter 8, in Midnight's Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India's Partition, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, →ISBN, pages 178–179:

     The young man faithfully delivered what Jinnah called “the gup”—the day's gossip — and tried vainly to extract a newsworthy quote from the League leader.

See also

• gup-shup

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Dzongkha རྒེད་པོ་ (rged po, “gup”).

Alternative forms

• gap

Noun

gup (plural gups)

1. An elected head of a gewog in Bhutan.
   • 1996, Dasho Yeshey Zimba, “Bhutan: Three Decades of Planned Development”, in R.C. Misra, M.A. Ramakant, editors, Bhutan: Society and Polity, Indus Publishing Company, published 1998, →ISBN, section 2, chapter 12, 179:

     A chupen is a liaison agent between the section of the village which he represents and the gup (an elected head of a block of villages). […] The gups and maangi-aps have been a central feature of Bhutanese village life since the 17th century. The gup has traditionally been an intermediary between the community and the state.

   • 2006, Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck, Treasures of the Thunder Dragon: A Portrait of Bhutan, Penguin Books India, →ISBN, part 3, chapter 13, 173:

     The next stop was the house of the gup (the village headman), who was once the reputed strongman of Merak, famous for being able to lift a young bull yak and place it on his back.

Anagrams

• GPU, pug

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

gup c (plural guppen, diminutive guppy n or gupje n or guppie n)

1. guppy, freshwater fish of the species Poecilia reticulata.
   • 2015 June 195, "Guppies tegen politieke scheldpartijen", De Telegraaf.

     Burgemeester Paul Depla, die zich het meest identificeert met een glauw-gele guppy, is wel blij met het aquarium: ,,Het geeft een soort huiskamergevoel en dat is mooi, want de raadzaal is toch de huiskamer van de stad."

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. (by extension) any small fish.
3. (by extension) anything small.
   • 2013 July 1, Thijs Zonneveld, “De bus van GreenEdge heeft iedereen op achterstand gezet”, in AD:

     De reservekeeper probeert zijn jongeheer onder zijn onderste vetrol vandaan te toveren, Kleine Dickie staat zoals altijd met zijn guppie richting de muur en de rest maakt grappen over de enorme tampeloeris van Ruud.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Synonyms

• guppie c or n, guppy c or n