skep

English

There is no definitive shape for a beehive skep; here are some examples, plus some crude wooden hives.

Etymology

Late Old English sceppe, from Old Norse skeppa (“basket”). Cognate with Danish skæppe (“an old Danish unit of measure equalling 17.4 l”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈskɛp/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛp

Noun

skep (plural skeps)

1. A basket.
   • 1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 115:

     Old women crouched over bags of Siamese rice, skeps of red and green peppers, purple egg-plants, bristly rambutans, pineapples, durians.

2. A beehive made of straw or wicker.
   • 1958, John Crompton, A Hive of Bees:

     Three of the hives had been overturned and the others had been rocked to and fro. The modern hive is a fearful thing to upset; the combs are not static as in a skep, but hang loosely: when the hive is overturned they smash and pile up like a telescoped train.

   • 1977, Patrick O'Brian, The Mauritius Command:

     He prised a skep from its stool and held it out, inverted, showing the dirty wreck of combs, with the vile grubs spinning their cocoons.

   • 2020, Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet:

     She installs seven skeps at the furthest edge of the garden; on warm July days it is possible to hear the restless rumble of the bees from the house.

Derived terms

• beeskep
• bread-skep

 

Translations

beehive

• Bulgarian: плетен кошер m (pleten košer)
• Galician: covo m, trobo (gl) m

See also

• creel
• skip

Old Frisian

Ēn skēp.

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *skāp, from Proto-Germanic *skēpą. Cognates include Old English sċēap, Old Saxon skāp and Old Dutch scāp.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈskeːp/, [ˈskɛːp]

Noun

skēp n

1. sheep

Descendants

• North Frisian:

  Föhr-Amrum: schep, schap

  Goesharde: schäip

  Helgoland: skēap

  Mooring: schäip

  Sylt: Sjip

  Wiedingharde: sees

• East Frisian:

  Harlingerland Frisian: schaip

  Saterland Frisian: Skäip

  Wangerooge Frisian: schaip

  Wursten Frisian: schepp, scheep

• West Frisian: skiep

  Hindeloopen: skeep

  Schiermonnikoog: schiep

References

• Norbruis, Stefan (2015) “tserne”, in Etymological Dictionary of West Frisian Farming Vocabulary‎^[1], Leiden: Leiden University, page 43.
• Bremmer, Rolf H. (2009) An Introduction to Old Frisian: History, Grammar, Reader, Glossary, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN

Old Norse

Verb

skep

1. first-person singular present indicative active of skepja
2. second-person singular present imperative active of skepja