In English, “tip” first pops up in the 13th century meaning “end, point, top”, probably from the Middle Dutch word “tip”, utmost point or extremity. Since then, it’s taken a number of twists and turns, as words often do. It used to refer to sure bets, a joke, a taboo gift, a handoff or illegal money transaction between thieves and ne’re-do-wells (“How do you do?” “Ne’re!”). In the 1520s, it came to mean a gratuity, a gift freely given. Some sources claim it stems from the acronym, To Insure Promptness, but this is what’s called a back-formation - applying a phony-baloney sense to an old word (POSH - port out, starboard home - is the exact same nonsense). By the 1720s, a small gift of money to a servant was established as a gratuity, from the Latin gratuitus. In Wales, a coal tip - a mountain of waste from coal mining - is a dangerous blight on the landscape. I here explore yet another meaning.
© 2024 John Oliver
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