whip

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*weyp-“to shake; to swing”
2. Proto-Germanic · derived from*wippōną“to move back and forth”
3. Middle Low German · derived fromwippen“to move quickly”
4. Middle Dutch · derived fromwippen“to swing, leap, dance, oscillate”
5. Middle English · inherited fromwhippen
6. English todaywhip

From Middle English whippen, wippen (“to flap violently”), from Middle Dutch wippen (“to swing, leap, dance, oscillate”) and Middle Low German wippen (“to move quickly”), from Proto-Germanic *wippōną (“to move back and forth”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weyp- (“to shake; to swing”). (See Swedish vippa and Danish vippe (“to shake”)). The unetymological wh- is probably expressive of the sound of a whip; compare the same development in whisk and onomatopoeias such as whack and whoosh. The political senses are from whipper-in (“huntsman who keeps the hounds from wandering”), from 18th-century hunting terminology.

Words from the same roots