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nope - What does it mean?

Definition of 'nope'

English

Etymology 1

Representing no pronounced with the mouth snapped closed at the end.

Adverb

(-)
  • (informal) No.
  • * 1856 , Sidney George Fisher, Charles Edward Fisher, Kanzas and the Constitution , p. 97,
    • "Is my son here, Clarence?" asked Roger Oakley. "Nope . The whistle ain't blowed yet."
  • * 1880 , R. Foli, Ill weeds , p. 319,
    • "No," from Tom, ending the word with so decided a pressure of the lips that it sounded like "nope ."
  • * 1890 , Werner's Readings and Recitations , E.S. Werner, p. 50
    • “Aunt Kat? And was Aunt Kat your only relation? Have you no father nor mother?” “Nope . Never had none ‘cept Aunt Kat. Her hull name was Katrina. She wuz Dutch she wuz."
  • * c1930 , Detroit (Michigan) Board of Education, The Detroit Educational Bulletin , Detroit (Michigan) Board of Education, p. 13
    • 1: I will not dishonour my country's speech by leaving off the last syllables of words, 2: I will say a good American "yes" and "no" in place of an Indian grunt "um-hum" and "nup-um" or a foreign "ya" or "yeh" and "nope "...
  • * 2006 , Charlotte Hudson Ewing, Red Land , AuthorHouse, ISBN: 1420895184, p. 54,
    • Nope . Don't know as I do.
    Usage notes
    The above usage has, since the 1850s, been far more common than any others.
    Antonyms
    * yup * yep * yeah

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • (informal) A negative reply, no.
    • I'll take that as a nope, then.
  • * 1981 , Tom Higgins, Practice quick...and swim'', read in ''Dale Earnhardt: Rear View Mirror , Sports Publishing LLC, ISBN: 1582614288 (2001), p. 32
    • By one reporter's count, questions about the change elicited seven shakes of the head indicating no comment, five "yeps" and three "nopes " from Earnhardt.
  • * 2002 , Fernando Poyatos, Nonverbal Communication Across Disciplines , John Benjamins Publishing Company, ISBN: 1556197543, p. 19,
    • Now 'Yeah,' 'Yep' and' Nope 'are always given as examples of what we do with 'Yes' and 'No' in English and it has become (particularly for foreigners) a sort of linguistic myth.
  • * 2005 , Suzanne Eggins, Diana Slade, Analysing Casual Conversation , Equinox Publishing Ltd, ISBN: 1845530462, p. 97
    • While Yeah'' occurs very frequently in casual talk, ''No'' and its conversational derivatives of ''nope , naw, nup, etc. are relatively infrequent.

    See also

    * yep

    Etymology 2

    Probably mutated from ope (see 1823 quote) from alp;

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • A bullfinch
  • * 1613 , Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion'', read in ''The Complete Works of Michael Drayton, Now First Collected. With Introductions and Notes by Richard Hooper. Volume 2. Poly-olbion Elibron Classics (2005) [facsimile of John Russell Smith (1876 ed)], p. 146,
    • To Philomell the next, the Linnet we prefer;/And by that warbling bird, the Wood-Lark place we then, /The Reed-sparrow, the Nope , the Red-breast, and the Wren, /The Yellow-pate: which though she hurt the blooming tree, /Yet scarce hath any bird a finer pipe than she.
  • * 1823 , Edward Moor, Suffolk Words and Phrases: or, An attempt to collect the lingual localisms of that county , R. Hunter, p. 255
    • I may note that olp'', if pronounced ''ope'', as it sometimes is, may be the origin of ''nope'''''; ''an ope'', and ''a '''nope , differ as little as possible.
  • * 1836 , David Booth, An Analytical Dictionary of the English Language, in which the Words are Explained in the Order of Their Natural Affinity, Independent of Alphabetical Arrangement , p. 380
    • In Natural History, 'An Eye of Pheasants' was also 'A Nye of Pheasants', and even the human Eye was written a Nye. The Bulfinch was either a Nope , or an Ope ; the common Lizard, or Eft (Old English Evet) is also the Newt; the Water-Eft is the Water-Newt ; and the Saxon nedder , a serpent (probably allied to Nether, as crawling on the ground) has been transformed into an Adder.
  • * 1882 , Abram Smythe Palmer, Folk-etymology: A Dictionary of Verbal Corruptions Or Words Perverted in Form Or Meaning , G. Bell and Sons, p. 583,
    • Nope , an old name for the bullfinch used by Drayton (Wright), is a corrupt form for an ope, otherwise spelt aupe, olp, or alpe (Prompt.Parv.).

    Quotations

    * (seeCites)

    Etymology 3

    Possibly influenced by nape and knap.

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • (East Midlands and Northern England) A blow to the head.
  • * 1823 , Francis Grose, Pierce Egan, Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue , Francis Grose, p. xci
    • (in an example of use of crackmans) The cull thought to have loped by breaking through the crackmans, but we fetched him back by a nope on the costard, which stopped his jaw.
  • * 1829 , Joseph Hunter, The Hallamshire Glossary , W. Pickering, p. 69,
    • I'll fetch thee a nope .

    Verb

  • (East Midlands and Northern England) (archaic) To hit someone on the head.
  • * 1851 , Sylvester Judd, Margaret: a tale of the real and the ideal, blight and bloom , Phillips, Sampson, & Co., p. 183,
    • "Nope him on the costard," said Ben Bolter.
  • * 1891 , T F Thiselton Dyer, Church-lore Gleanings , A. D. Innes & co., p. 65
    • The sexton seemed reluctant to resume his old duties, remarking -- "Be I to nope Mr. M on the head if I catches him asleep?"

    Anagrams

    * open * peon * pone ----

    Similar to 'nope'

    neve, nape, nave, naive, nieve, nappe, novae, navie, nife, nabe, naeve