dapper
adjUK /ˈdæpə(ɹ)/
Etymology From Middle English daper (“pretty, neat”), from Middle Dutch dapper (“stalwart, nimble”), Old Dutch *dapar, from Proto-Germanic *dapraz (“stout; solid; heavy; bold”) (compare German tapfer "bold", Norwegian daper "saddened, dreary"), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeb- ‘thick, heavy’ (compare Tocharian A tpär ‘high’, Latvian dàbls ‘strong’, Serbo-Croatian дебео (dèbeo) ‘fat’).
1
Neat, trim.
- This entrance is through a little courtyard, in which is the stable and coach-house combined, where Madame Perinere, a lady who paints the magic word "Modes" beneath her name on the door-post of number seventeen, keeps the dapper little cart and pony which carry her bonnets to the farthest corner of Paris.1892, Henry Seton Merriman, The Slave Of The Lamp:
2
Stylishly dressed, neatly dressed, spiffy.
- “It is too bad that monsieur has been troubled,” said Tarzan, turning to the newspaper man. “I bid monsieur good evening,” and he bowed the dapper young man out of the room, and closed the door in his face.1913 June–December, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Plot That Failed”, in The Return of Tarzan, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, […], published March 1915, →OCLC, page 71:
- Going down the street, you would meet a typical commercial traveller, dapper and alert.1917, P. G. Wodehouse, The Man With Two Left Feet:
3
Quick; little and active.
- Derived terms
- Dapper Dan, dapperling, dapperly, dapperness, undapper