loper meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

loper

noun

Etymology From lope (“to leap, to run”) + -er.

One who or that which lopes; a runner; a leaper.

Wolves are very intelligent animals, and they are lopers and they are survivors.2000, Marilyn Elkins, August Wilson: A Casebook:

Arts, Crafts, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Nautical, Ropemaking, Transport A swivel placed at one end of the ropewalk, with the whirl being at the opposite end.

Related terms: geländeläufer, interloper, landloper

loper

noun

Etymology From American Spanish lobo (“wolf”) (/ˈloβo/), reinterpreted as or conflated with loper (“one who lopes”); compare the alternative forms which reflect other re-interpretations and conflations.

Southwestern, US, Dialectal A wolf, especially a grey or timber wolf.

When I was still some distance above the ford, about a dozen prairie wolves and one loper* wolf ran up from the water. They told me that there were no Indians near here or they would not be here; and they were not here long, either. [...] the big loper left on a slow gallop [...] Loper, corruption of Sp. lobo, wolf.1905 April 22, C. Blanco, “Flanking a Wolf”, in Forest and Stream, page 314:
Besides the cattle company paid a bounty for each coyote, loper wolf, panther, bobcat or bear. We had to buy our own six-shooter but the company furnished ammunition free. So it can be seen why most cowboys were pretty good shots.1936, James Shannon Buchanan, Chronicles of Oklahoma: