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kipper

 [kip-er]   Origin

kip·per

1   [kip-er]
noun
1.
a fish, especially a herring, that has been cured by splitting, salting, drying, and smoking.
2.
this method of curing fish.
3.
a male salmon during or after the spawning season.
verb (used with object)
4.
to cure (herring, salmon, etc.) by splitting, salting, drying and smoking.

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chat, to converse
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Origin:
before 1000; Middle English kypre, Old English cypera spawning salmon, apparently derivative of cyperen of copper, i.e., copper-colored
Dictionary.com Unabridged

kip·per

2   [kip-er]
noun Australian Informal.
a young male Aborigine, usually 14 to 16 years old, who has recently undergone his tribal initiation rite.
Origin:
1835–45; < Wiradjuri gibirr man
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
kipper1 (ˈkɪpə)
 
—n
1.  a fish, esp a herring, that has been cleaned, salted, and smoked
2.  a male salmon during the spawning season
3.  archaic, derogatory, slang (Austral) an Englishman
 
—vb
4.  (tr) to cure (a fish, esp a herring) by salting and smoking
 
[Old English cypera, perhaps from copercopper1; referring to its colour]

kipper2 (ˈkɪpə)
 
—n
a native Australian youth who has completed an initiation rite
 
[from a native Australian language]

kipper3 (ˈkɪpə)
 
—n
informal an adult who cannot afford to move away from his or her parents' home
 
[C21: from k(ids) i(n) p(arents') p(ockets) e(roding) r(etirement) (savings)]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

kipper
O.E. cypera "male salmon," perhaps related to coper "reddish-brown metal" (see copper), on resemblance of color. Another theory connects it to kip, name for the sharp, hooked lower jaw of the male salmon in breeding season, from M.E. kippen "to snatch, tug, pull." The modern
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word usually refers to kippered herring, from a verb meaning "to cure a fish by cleaning, salting, and spicing it" (1326). The theory is that this was originally done to salmon, hence the name.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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