Word of the Day

: March 23, 2012

pippin

noun PIP-in

What It Means

1 : a crisp tart apple having usually yellow or greenish-yellow skin strongly flushed with red and used especially for cooking

2 : a highly admired or very admirable person or thing

pippin in Context

The CEO's retirement speech was a pippin.

"[Judge Len Goodman of 'Dancing with the Stars'] said … that the dance was 'first class.... It was crisp, it was sharp, it was like a pippin.'" - From an article by Allyssa Lee in the Los Angeles Times, September 27, 2011

Did You Know?

Since the late Middle Ages, English speakers have experimented with the use of the word "pippin," which germinated from the Anglo-French word "pepin," meaning "seed" or "pip of a fruit." "Pippin" has been used to refer to a part of a pea embryo, a grain of gold, and a grape, but those uses were not hardy enough to become firmly rooted in the English language. The word did take root, however, in the soil of the northern regions of England, where it is used to describe a small fruit seed. In addition, it has widespread use as the name of a crisp, tart apple and of a person who is unique, usually in a pleasant way.