[Sca-cooks] kippering

[Johnna Holloway]

There's the very useful
Dictionary of the Scots Language:
http://www.dsl.ac.uk/
**Kipper **, /n/. Also: *keiper*, *kep-*, *keypyr*. Add: Also attrib.
with /salmont/. — (1)
For a keiper xi d.; *1512* /Household Bk. Jas. IV/ 13 b.
For ane kypper xvi d.; /Ib./ 17 b. (2)
Coft i kepyr salmont pryce xiiii d.; *1512* /Household Bk. Jas. IV/ 2 b.
For ane keypyr salmont xx d.; *1512* /Ib./ in /Facs. Nat. MSS./ III. x.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now as a verb--
**Kipper **, /n/. Also: *keiper*, *kep-*, *keypyr*. Add: Also attrib.
with /salmont/. — (1)
For a keiper xi d.; *1512* /Household Bk. Jas. IV/ 13 b.
For ane kypper xvi d.; /Ib./ 17 b. (2)
Coft i kepyr salmont pryce xiiii d.; *1512* /Household Bk. Jas. IV/ 2 b.
For ane keypyr salmont xx d.; *1512* /Ib./ in /Facs. Nat. MSS./ III. x.

†** KIPPER **, /v/.^2 To trifle (Abd. 1928).
**Abd.* *1902* /E.D.D./:
Fat gars ye come * kipper *in wi a thingie like that?
[Prob. an irreg. variant of Eng. /caper/.]

**kIPPER **, /v/.^3 With /up/: to pile or stack objects loosely and
carelessly (Mry.^1 1925, Abd.^27 1959).
**Abd.*^15 *1928*:
Dinna be * kipper *in it up on that heech skelf, an’ haein it fain’ doon
an’ brakkin.
[From Kip

OED lists it as "Etymology uncertain". One wants to think it might have
to do with 'keeping' or 'preserving' which turns up under 'kip*' 
searches in the MED.

Moffett mentions that salmon "for towards Winter they wax kipper, full 
of kernels under their throate like a measeld hogg, and lose both their 
redness of fles ...."
Izaak Walton mentions "that the He Salmon susually bigger then the 
Spawner, and that he is more kipper, & less able to endure a winter in 
the fresh water, then the She is;..."

So the term may have come from the earlier term for a male salmon.

Johnnae
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Terry Decker wrote:
>
>> Okay, For once I can find where I read this. From the same book I
>> mentioned, "Fish on Friday, Feasting, Fasting and the Discovery of 
>> the New World", p 47, 48.
>>
>> The footnote on p 47:
>> "A note on herring terminology for uninitiated readers: the kipper is 
>> lightly salted then smoked, the word coming from "kippering", a 1326 
>> verb that means "to cure a fish by cleaning, salting and spicing it" 
>> Kippers and bloaters were associated with Yarmouth, England, but were 
>> produced all along the eastern English coast, especailly in 
>> Northumberland, where the kippering process was invented in the 1840s."
>>
>>
>> Stefan
>
> The author is assuming broader meaning than is presented by the 
> evidence. The 1326 reference (according to the OED) is the Durham 
> Account Rolls and the entry reads, "11 Kypres emp., 3s 6p", A note to 
> the entry reads, "It is doubtful whether the quots. from the Durham 
> Acc. Rolls belong here; they may relate to the fish in sense 1, 
> without reference to any particular mode of preparation." Sense 1 
> refers to spent salmon.
>
> Please note that the word used is a noun, while the author is saying 
> it is a verb. Usage as a verb does not appear in the written record 
> until the 18th Century. I'm of the opinion the author is in error on 
> this linguistic point and is overstating the evidence.
>
> Bear
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