lope

See also: Lope, lopë, løpe, and löpe

English

WOTD – 24 February 2009

Etymology

From Middle English lopen, from Old Norse hlaupa (“to leap, jump”). See leap. Cognate with German laufen (“walk, run”), Danish løbe (“run”), Dutch lopen (“walk, run”), Norwegian løpe (“run”). Doublet of leap.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ləʊp/
• (US) IPA^(key): /loʊp/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊp
• Homophone: Lop

Verb

lope (third-person singular simple present lopes, present participle loping, simple past and past participle loped)

1. To travel an easy pace with long strides.

   He loped along, hour after hour, not fast but steady and covering much ground.

   • 1927, William Byron Mowery, Pirates Of The Muskeg:

     Scott hurried down the dark path, lifted the canoe from the muddy rock to the moss, took out the packs, and loped back. toward the cabin. As he passed the window he glanced inside.

   • 1957, Jack Kerouac, chapter 5, in On the Road, Viking Press, →OCLC, part 5:

     And as we waited in the car Victor got out and loped over to the house and said a few words to an old lady, […]

   • 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:

     “And the holidays?” Murgo proposed one evening as they loped down a bridlepath past lovers fondling in the grass. “Fun, are they? High living?”

2. (obsolete, intransitive) To jump, leap.
   • 1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “Capitulum xxxv”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book IX, [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889, →OCLC:

     And as he cam by a ryver, in hys woodnes he wolde have made hys horse to have lopyn over the watir; and the horse fayled footyng and felle in the ryver

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1621-22, Thomas Middleton et al, The Spanish Gypsy

     he that lopes on the ropes

Derived terms

• loper
• lopingly

Related terms

• elope
• interlope

Translations

to travel an easy pace with long strides

• Czech: klusat
• Finnish: harppoa (fi)
• French: courir en bondissant
• German: leicht galoppieren, kantern, eilen (de), springend rennen
• Italian: procedere a lunghi salti
• Russian: размашисто идти (razmašisto idti)
• Spanish: correr a paso largo, trotar a zancadas, andar a zancajadas, caminar a trancos, ambular a trancadas

Noun

lope (plural lopes)

1. An easy pace with long strides.
   • 1931, Home Geographic Monthly, volumes 1-2, page 45:

     Hares have larger, leaner bodies, longer legs, and longer ears than the true rabbit. They also run with a lope instead of a hop. It is thought that they developed this more stream-lined body and swifter gait from running on the plains […]

   • 2022 October 25, Nghi Vo, Into the Riverlands, Tordotcom, →ISBN:

     Then he was gone, not with the flashing quick steps that Lao Bingyi and Wei Jintai had employed but with the long lope of a wolf that knows to pace himself for a hunt.

Translations

easy pace with long strides

• German: Kanter m, leichter Galopp m

Anagrams

• LEPO, Pole, olpe, pleo-, pole

Afrikaans

Noun

lope

1. plural of loop

Albanian

Noun

lope

1. indefinite dative/ablative singular of lopë

Chinook Jargon

Etymology

Borrowed from English rope.

Noun

lope

1. rope

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

lope

1. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of lopen

Anagrams

• loep, poel

French

Etymology

Clipping of lopaille, clipping of lopaillekem, louchébem for copaille (homosexual partner), derogatory form of copain.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lɔp/

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France):

  (file)

Noun

lope f (plural lopes)

1. (slang, derogatory) male homosexual
2. (by extension, derogatory) cowardly, characterless man
   • 1994, Yasmina Reza, ‘Art’:

     Marc. Si c’est grâce à lui que tu es revenu tendre ton autre joue, tu peux le remercier. Il a fait de toi une lope, mais tu es content, c’est l’essentiel.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Further reading

• “lope”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Inari Sami

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.) Related to Northern Sami lohpi.

Noun

lope

1. promise

Inflection

Even e-stem, p-v gradation
Nominative	lope
Genitive	love
	Singular	Plural
Nominative	lope	loveh
Accusative	love	luuvijd
Genitive	love	luvij luuvij
Illative	lopán	luuvijd
Locative	looveest	luuvijn
Comitative	luuvijn	luvijguin
Abessive	lovettáá	luvijttáá
Essive	loppeen
Partitive	loppeed
Possessive forms Singular Dual Plural 1st person — — — 2nd person — — — 3rd person — — —

Derived terms

• lopediđ

Further reading

• lope in Marja-Liisa Olthuis, Taarna Valtonen, Miina Seurujärvi and Trond Trosterud (2015–2022), Nettidigisäänih Anarâškiela-suomakielâ-anarâškielâ sänikirje‎^[1], Tromsø: UiT

• Eino Koponen, Klaas Ruppel, Kirsti Aapala, editors (2002–2008), Álgu database: Etymological database of the Saami languages‎^[2], Helsinki: Research Institute for the Languages of Finland

Pali

Alternative forms

Alternative scripts

• lopā (Latin script)
• 𑀮𑁄𑀧𑀸 (Brahmi script)
• लोपा (Devanagari script)
• লোপা (Bengali script)
• ලොපා (Sinhalese script)
• လောပါ or လေႃပႃ (Burmese script)
• โลปา (Thai script)
• ᩃᩮᩣᨷᩤ (Tai Tham script)
• ໂລປາ (Lao script)
• លោបា (Khmer script)
• 𑄣𑄮𑄛𑄂 (Chakma script)

Noun

lope

1. inflection of lopa (“cutting off”):
   1. locative singular
   2. accusative plural

Saterland Frisian

Alternative forms

• loope

Etymology

Suppletive:

• For forms starting with l-, from Old Frisian hlāpa, from Proto-West Germanic *hlaupan. Cognates include West Frisian ljeppe and German laufen.
• For forms starting with r-, from Old Frisian renna, from Proto-West Germanic *rinnan. Cognates include West Frisian rinne and German rennen.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈloːpə/
• Hyphenation: lo‧pe

Verb

lope

1. (intransitive) to run
2. (intransitive) to flow
3. (intransitive) to sprout
4. (intransitive, + mäd) to interact (with)

Conjugation

Conjugation of lope (irregular)

grúundfoarme		lope
infinitive		tou lopen
		present	past
singular	iek	lope	liep, ron
	du	lapst, lopst	liepst, ronst
	hie/ju/dät	lapt, lopt	liep, ron
plural		lope	liepen, ronnen
		imperative
singular		loop
plural		lopet
		present	past
participle		lopend	lepen, ronnen
auxiliary verb		—	weze

References

• Marron C. Fort (2015), “lope”, in Saterfriesisches Wörterbuch mit einer phonologischen und grammatischen Übersicht, Buske, →ISBN