nope

See also: Nope

English

Etymology 1

Representing no pronounced with the mouth snapped closed at the end. Compare yep, welp, ope, and yup.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /noʊp/, [noʊp̚]

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊp

Particle

nope

1. (informal, often emphatic) No.
   • 1856, Sidney George Fisher, Charles Edward Fisher, Kanzas and the Constitution, page 97:

     "Is my son here, Clarence?" asked Roger Oakley. "Nope. The whistle ain't blowed yet."

   • 1880, R. Foli, Ill weeds, page 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, page 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."

   • c. 1930, The Detroit Educational Bulletin, Detroit (Michigan) Board of Education, page 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, page 54:

     Nope. Don't know as I do.

Usage notes

The usage as a reply in the form of a single-word sentence has, since the 1850s, been far more common than any others.

Antonyms

• yup
• yep
• yeah

Derived terms

• noop
• nope rope

Descendants

• → Italian: nop
• → Portuguese: nop
• → Spanish: nop

Translations

informal "no"

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 不啊 (bù a), 不是啊 (búshì a)

• Dutch: neu (nl)
• Finnish: ei (fi)
• French: bah (fr), nan (fr)
• German: nee (de), nö (de)
• Hindi: नहीं (hi) (nahī̃)
• Icelandic: neibb
• Indonesian: enggak (id)
• Italian: no (it)
• Japanese: いや (ja) (iya), ううん (ja) (uun), 違う (ja) (ちがう, chigau)
• Korean: 아니 (ko) (ani)
• Persian: نه (fa) (na)
• Portuguese: nem (pt)
• Romanian: nu (ro)
• Russian: не́-а (ru) (né-a)
• Spanish: nop (es), no po (Chile), nel (es) (slang, Mexico)
• Swedish: nepp
• Turkish: yo (tr)

Noun

nope (plural nopes)

1. (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 (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.

2. (slang) An intensely undesirable thing, such as a circumstance or an animal, eliciting immediate repulsion without possibility of further consideration.
   • 2016, Sam Plank, This Cemetery With A Haunted Playground Is A Casket Full Of Nope, Movie Pilot, [1]

     This cemetery with a haunted playground is a casket full of nope.

Derived terms

• nope out
• Nopeville

Translations

informal "no"

• Finnish: ei (fi)
• Swedish: nepp
• Turkish: hayır (tr)

Etymology 2

Probably a rebracketing of an ope (see 1823 quote), from alp.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nəʊp/
• Rhymes: -əʊp

Noun

nope (plural nopes)

1. (archaic, except near Staffordshire) 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, page 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, page 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

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:nope.

Etymology 3

Possibly influenced by nape and knap.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nəʊp/

Noun

nope (plural nopes)

1. (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, page 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, page 69:

     I'll fetch thee a nope.

Verb

nope (third-person singular simple present nopes, present participle noping, simple past and past participle noped)

1. (archaic, East Midlands and Northern England) To hit someone on the head.
   • 1851, Sylvester Judd, Margaret: a tale of the real and the ideal, blight and bloom, Phillips, Sampson, & Co., page 183:

     "Nope him on the costard," said Ben Bolter.

   • 1891, T F Thiselton Dyer, Church-lore Gleanings, A. D. Innes & co., page 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, peno-, peon, pone

Dutch

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: no‧pe

Verb

nope

1. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of nopen

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: nope

Interjection

nope

1. (informal) nope

Anagrams

• open

French

Alternative forms

• noppe

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nɔp/

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Middle Dutch noppe (“a fluff of wool, wool tassel”), from Old Dutch *noppo, *hnoppo, from Proto-Germanic *hnuppô (“nap of cloth”), from Proto-Indo-European *knew-, *kenw- (“to scratch, scrape, rub”). Cognate with Old English hnoppa (“nap of cloth”). More at nap.

Noun

nope f (plural nopes)

1. a tuft of wool; a knot in a fabric; nap

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English nope.

Interjection

nope

1. (informal, neologism) nope

Further reading

• “nope”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.