The story
- Old English · inherited fromrīpere“reaper”
- Middle English · inherited fromreper
- English todayreaper
From Middle English reper, repare, repere, *riper (the last, attested only in surnames Ryper, Riper, etc.), from Old English rīpere (“reaper”), equivalent to reap + -er.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.