Etymology

heap

H4E1A1P3

Today it means: A crowd; a throng; a multitude or great number of people. Full definition →

Middle English hepe ← Old English hēap ← Proto-West Germanic *haup
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heap · noun, verb, adverb1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*koupos“hill”
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*haupaz
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*haup
  4. Old English · inherited fromhēap
  5. Middle English · inherited fromhepe
  6. English todayheap

From Middle English hepe, from Old English hēap, from Proto-West Germanic *haup, from Proto-Germanic *haupaz (compare Dutch hoop, German Low German Hupen, German Haufen), from Proto-Indo-European *koupos (“hill”) (compare Lithuanian kaũpas, Albanian qipi (“stack”), Avestan 𐬐𐬂𐬟𐬀 (kåfa)).

Heap · proper noun2

English surname, from the noun heap.

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishhepe all →

hipHeape

Old Englishhēap all →

Heeps

Proto-Germanic*haupaz all →

forlorn hope

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.