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pap

[pap]

Example Sentences Origin

noun

soft food for infants or invalids, as bread soaked in water or milk.

an idea, talk, book, or the like, lacking substance or real value.

Origin:
1400–50; late Middle English; a nursery word akin to Dutch pap, German Pappe, Latin, Italian pappa

Related forms

pap·like, adjective

Synonyms
2. drivel, balderdash, twaddle.

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Pap is always a great word to know.

So is bezoar. Does it mean:

a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.

a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.

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Example Sentences

What a bunch of modern-day, super-politically-correct pap.

Such narrative pap was poisoning future students' minds, they moaned, making later study of real history more difficult.

Igual al pap el de lija, pulen la tierra, ola tras ola tras ola.

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Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun Chiefly Dialect.

a teat; nipple.

something resembling a teat or nipple.

Origin:
1150–1200; Middle English pappe; compare dialectal Norwegian, Swedish pappe, Latin papilla (see papilla), Lithuanian pãpas, all from a base *pap-; akin to pap¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To pap

Collins

World English Dictionary

pap¹ (pæp)

—n
1.	any soft or semiliquid food, such as bread softened with milk, esp for babies or invalids; mash
2.	(South African) porridge made from maize
3.	worthless or oversimplified ideas; drivel: intellectual pap

[C15: from Middle Low German pappe, via Medieval Latin from Latin pappāre to eat; compare Dutch pap, Italian pappa]

pap² (pæp)

—n
1.	dialect (Scot), (Northern English) a nipple or teat
2.	a. something resembling a breast or nipple, such as (formerly) one of a pair of rounded hilltops
	b. (capital as part of a name): the Pap of Glencoe

[C12: of Scandinavian origin, imitative of a sucking sound; compare Latin papilla nipple, Sanskrit pippalaka]

pap³ (pæp)

—vb , -ps, -ping, -ped
	(of the paparazzi) to follow and photograph (a famous person)

[C20: from paparazzo]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

pap

"soft food for infants," c.1430, from O.Fr. papa "watered gruel," from L. pappa, a widespread word in children's language for "food" (e.g. M.H.G., Du. pap, Ger. Pappe), imitative of an infant's noise when hungry; possibly associated with pap (2) (q.v.). Meaning "over-simplified idea" first recorded 1548.

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pap

"nipple of a woman's breast," c.1200, first attested in Northern and Midlands writing, probably from a Scand. source (not recorded in O.N., but cf. dial. Swed. pappe), from PIE imitative base *pap- "to swell" (cf. L. papilla "nipple," papula "a swelling, pimple;" Lith. papas "nipple").

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

pap (pāp)
n.
Soft or semiliquid food, as for infants.

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Computing Dictionary