English

top

/tɒp/
The highest or uppermost part of something.

    Etymology graph

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    Origin

    From Middle English top, toppe, from Old English topp (“top, highest part; summit; crest; tassel, tuft; (spinning) top, ball; a tuft or ball at the highest point of anything”), from Proto-West Germanic *topp, from Proto-Germanic *tuppaz (“braid, pigtail, end”), of unknown ultimate origin. Compare typologically Latin apex (<< Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep- (“to join, attach, fasten, fit”)).

    Cognate with Saterland Frisian Top (“top”), Cimbrian sòpf (“braid”), Dutch top (“top, summit, peak”), German Topp (“top of a mast”), Zopf (“braid, pigtail, plait, top”), Luxembourgish Zapp (“plait, tress”), Vilamovian cöp (“braid, plait”), Yiddish צאָפּ (tsop, “braid”), Danish top (“top”), Icelandic toppur (“top”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish topp (“top, peak, summit, tip”), Italian zuffa (“brawl”).

    The sense of a spinning toy is separated from this, obscurely related to Dutch top and dop in this sense, against Standard Dutch tol, and French toupie having this sense.

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • inheritedMiddle Englishtop
      • inheritedOld Englishtopp “top, highest part; summit; crest; tassel, tuft; (spinning) top, ball; a tuft or ball at the highest…”
        • inheritedProto-West Germanic*topp
          • inheritedProto-Germanic*tuppaz “braid, pigtail, end”

    Related: Saterland Frisian Top, Cimbrian sòpf, Dutch top, German Topp, Luxembourgish Zapp, Vilamovian cöp, Yiddish צאָפּ, Danish top, Icelandic toppur, Swedish topp, Italian zuffa, French toupie

    Words built on it: stop, out-top, top-out, big top

    Sources