{"id":40777,"date":"2015-05-14T00:10:58","date_gmt":"2015-05-14T07:10:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=40777"},"modified":"2015-05-14T03:06:41","modified_gmt":"2015-05-14T10:06:41","slug":"origin-lap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2015\/05\/origin-lap\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Your Lap is Called That"},"content":{"rendered":"
Oakley420 asks: Why is a lap called a lap?<\/div>\n

\"lap\"<\/a>Used as a noun, verb and adjective, most with several distinct meanings, lap <\/em>is a prominent word in the English language.<\/p>\n

One of its most common meanings denotes the upper part of the legs when seated. Derived from a Proto-Germanic word *lapp<\/em>, meaning the “skirt or flap of a garment,” or as the OED notes, “A part (of a garment or the like) either hanging down or projecting so as to admit of being folded over.” (Think toga, or the front of a robe.) This ultimately derived from the Proto-Indo-Eurpoean root “*leb”, meaning “be loose, hang down.”<\/p>\n

This was later incorporated by a variety of early languages, including Old Saxon and Old High German (lappa<\/em>), Middle Dutch and Dutch (lappe <\/em>and lap<\/em>), and, of course, Old English (l\u00e6ppa<\/em>).<\/p>\n

The first known instance of “lap” meaning the top of the space between your hips and your knees when seated occurred in 1275 in Layamon, The Brut<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Com \u00fear a bour-cniht and sat adun for\u00fe riht\u2025he nam \u00fean kynges hefd and leyde vppe his lappe<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And then more notably in the prologue of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales<\/em> in the late 14th century, “His walet lay biforn hym in his lappe.”<\/p>\n

A second popular meaning, to pull up liquid with the tongue, also dates back to Old English (500-1150 AD) with the word lapian, <\/em>first documented around the year 1000.\u00a0 <\/em>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

If you’re wondering about the sense of a trip around a track or the like, in the mid-1600s, one meaning of lap <\/em>was something coiled up. By the mid-1800s, this morphed into “laps” of a track.<\/p>\n

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy our new popular podcast, The BrainFood Show (iTunes<\/a>, Spotify<\/a>, Google Play Music<\/a>, Feed<\/a>), as well as:<\/p>\n