different between sappy vs nappy

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English sappy, sapy, from Old English sæpi? (“full of sap, succulent”), equivalent to sap +? -y. Cognate with West Frisian sappig (“juicy”), Dutch sappig (“juicy, succulent”), Middle High German saffic, seffec ("juicy, succulent"; > German saftig), Danish saftig (“juicy”), Swedish saftig (“juicy”). Doublet of zaftig.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sæpi/
• Rhymes: -æpi

Adjective

sappy (comparative sappier, superlative sappiest)

1. (US) Excessively sweet, emotional, nostalgic; cheesy; mushy. (British equivalent: soppy)
   • 1883, Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi, Part 5, Chapter 23,^[1]

     He was a good deal of a character, and much better company than the sappy literature he was selling.

   • 1943, Sinclair Lewis, Gideon Planish, Chapter 23,^[2]

     To himself, already beginning to resent the new employer as all that morning he had been resenting the old one, Dr. Planish groaned, “He’s getting saintly on me! A careerist in holiness! I'll never be happy till I've got an organization where I’m sole boss—unless it’s one run by a fellow like Colonel Marduc, who has real brains and power—and cash!—and not a lot of sappy sentimentality like Vesper or psychopathic malice like Sneaky Sandy—Oh dear!”

   It was a sappy love song, but it reminded them of their first dance.

2. Having (a particularly large amount of) sap.
   • 1593, William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis,^[3]

     ‘Torches are made to light, jewels to wear,

     Dainties to taste, fresh beauty for the use,

     Herbs for their smell, and sappy plants to bear:

     Things growing to themselves are growth’s abuse:

     Seeds spring from seeds and beauty breedeth beauty;

     Thou wast begot; to get it is thy duty.

   • 1842, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Amphion,”^[4]

     But these, tho’ fed with careful dirt,
     Are neither green nor sappy;
     Half-conscious of the garden-squirt,
     The spindlings look unhappy,

   • 1887, Thomas Hardy, The Woodlanders, Chapter 24,^[5]

     The sappy green twig-tips of the season’s growth would not, she thought, be appreciably woodier on the day she became a wife, so near was the time; the tints of the foliage would hardly have changed.

   • 1976, Kurt Vonnegut, Slapstick, Delacorte Press, Chapter 8, p. 61,

     As always, there was a fizzing, popping blaze of pine and sappy apple logs in the fireplace.
3. (obsolete) Juicy.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Book Two, Canto XII, Stanza 56, edited by Erik Gray, Hackett, 2006, p. 214,

     In her left hand a Cup of gold she held,

     And with her right the riper fruit did reach,

     Whose sappy liquor, that with fulnesse sweld,

     Into her cup she scruzd, with daintie breach

     Of her fine fingers, without fowle empeach,

     That so faire winepresse made the wine more sweet:

   • 1693, François Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel, Book III, (1546), translated by Thomas Urquhart, Chapter 18,^[6]

     The words of the third article are: She will suck me at my best end. Why not? That pleaseth me right well. You know the thing; I need not tell you that it is my intercrural pudding with one end. I swear and promise that, in what I can, I will preserve it sappy, full of juice, and as well victualled for her use as may be.

   • 1717, Ovid, Metamorphoses, translated by John Dryden, London: J. and R. Tonson, 4th edition, 1736, Book I, pp. 21-22,^[7]

     The Stones (a Miracle to Mortal View,

     But long Tradition makes it pass for true)

     Did first the Rigour of their Kind expell,

     And suppled into softness as they fell;

     Then swell’d, and swelling, by degrees grew warm;

     And took the Rudiments of human Form.

     Imperfect Shapes: in Marble such are seen,

     When the rude Chizzel does the Man begin;

     While yet the roughness of the Stone remains,

     Without the rising Muscles, and the Veins.

     The sappy parts, and next resembling juice,

     Were turn’d to moisture, for the Body’s use:

     Supplying humours, blood and nourishment;

4. (obsolete, of wood) Spongy; Having spaces in which large quantities of sap can flow.

Derived terms

• sappily
• sappiness

Translations

Etymology 2

Compare Latin sapere (“to taste”).

Alternative forms

• sapy

Adjective

sappy (comparative more sappy, superlative most sappy)

1. (obsolete) Musty; tainted; rancid.
   • 1580, Barret in V. Restie, Alv. 1580

     sappie or unsavourie flesh

   • 1783, Lemon's Etymological Dictionary

     Sapy [denotes] a moisture contracted on the outward surface of meats, which is the first stage of dissolution.

Anagrams

• appys, paspy, yapps

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?næpi/
• Rhymes: -æpi

Etymology 1

Probably shortened from napkin (but possibly a corruption of French nappe, since napkin is already a diminutive).

Noun

nappy (plural nappies)

1. (Britain, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand) An absorbent garment worn by a baby who does not yet have voluntary control of their bladder and bowels or by someone who is incontinent; a diaper.
   • 1995, Jennie Lindon, Lance Lindon, Leandra Negrini, Caring for Young Children, page 60,

     You will notice that disposable nappies are sold in boy and girl versions. They vary in where the thickest padding is provided.

   • 2005, Medical Association of Malawi, Malawi Medical Journal: The Journal of Medical Association of Malawi, Volume 17, page 39,

     Other equipment required was soap for hand washing and washing of nappies, a washing line for the drying of nappies, […] .

   • 2008, Isabelle Young, Healthy Travel: Asia & India, Lonely Planet, 2nd edition, page 275,

     You could burn disposable nappies (not a very practical option); otherwise, it?s probably best to take a supply of large plastic bags or nappy sacks with you and to dispose of them as thoughtfully as you can.

   • 2009, Chris Arnold, Ethical Marketing and The New Consumer, page 55,

     In response we mailed hundreds of nappies to students in halls. On the nappy was a simple message, IT'S A LOT EASIER TO PUT ON A CONDOM.

Synonyms

• (US, Canada) diaper
• (South African, archaic British) napkin

Translations

Verb

nappy (third-person singular simple present nappies, present participle nappying, simple past and past participle nappied)

1. (transitive) To put a nappy on.

   The mother nappied the baby.

See also

• Diaper on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

From nap +? -y.

Adjective

nappy (comparative nappier, superlative nappiest)

1. Having a nap (of cloth etc.); downy; shaggy.
   • 1950, US District Courts, US Court of Claims, US Court of Customs and Patent Appeals, Federal Supplement, Volume 89, page 438,

     The original accused device, as was the patented device, was made of cotton flannel with a nappy surface on each side, […] .

2. (US, informal, sometimes offensive) Of hair: tightly curled or twisted; frizzy (often specifically in reference to Afro textured hair)
   • 1987, Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography, page 30,

     We would talk about each other?s ugly, big lips and flat noses. We would call each other pickaninnies and nappy-haired so-and-so?s.

   • 2006, Ronald L. Jackson II, Scripting the Black Masculine Body, page 52,

     For example, some Black people?s corporeal zones include nappy hair texture, wide noses, thick lips, and darker-than-white skin complexion, all of which come into play when an individual is interacting with a cultural “Other.”

   • 2010, Nadine George-Graves, Urban Bush Women: Twenty Years of African American Dance Theater, Community Engagement, and Working It Out, page 50,

     She had decided to just cover her hair with a scarf because Aunt Bell was “old school” and Zollar did not want to have to explain why she had nappy hair.

3. (rare) Inclined to sleep; sleepy.
   • 1930, Hubert Evans, H. E. M. Sellen, The Silent Call (page 90)

     After supper I felt nappy and dropped right off to sleep.

Translations

See also

• Afro-textured hair on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Discrimination based on hair texture on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 3

From Middle English nap, from Old English hnæp, hnæpp, hnæpf (“cup, bowl”), from Proto-Germanic *hnappaz (“bowl, goblet, cup”). See hanaper.

Alternative forms

• nappie

Noun

nappy (plural nappies)

1. A shallow, flat-bottomed earthenware or glass bowl with sloping sides.
   • 1902, Charles Austin Bates, The Art and Literature of Business, Volume 4, page 328,

     Suppose you advertise a “five-inch glass nappy.” It doesn?t tell a reader anything — a woman especially. She can?t tell how big five inches are anyway ; but just say, “large imitation cut glass fruit saucers at thirty cents a dozen,” and get your packers ready.

   • 1909, Milton Osman Jones, Guide to Successful Squab Raising, page 11,

     The use of a glazed earthenware nesting-dish, or “nappy, ” 9 inches in diameter across the top, is strongly advised.

   • 1914, Southern Pharmaceutical Journal, Volume 7, page 626,

     Place a slice of pineapple in a fruit nappy, place on it a No. 10 cone of vanilla ice cream and pour over it a ladle of chop suey dressing, crowning it with a freshly opened lycher nut or a cherry.

Etymology 4

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Adjective

nappy (comparative nappier, superlative nappiest)

1. (of a drink) Foamy; having a large head.
2. (of a horse) Nervous, excitable.
   • 1928, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Penguin 2013, p. 161:

     ‘He's a mutton-fisted beggar; but the horse is a bit nappy, and young Roger'll be the man to keep him going at his fences.’

   • 1948, John Edward Hance, Better Horsemanship, page 73,

     I do feel, however, that in talking lightheartedly of making rearing, pulling or nappy horses into useful members of equine society I am treading on very dangerous ground.

   • 2006, Karen Coumbe, Karen Bush, The Complete Equine Emergency Bible, page 151,

     Note that it is possible that a horse is not in fact being nappy at all, but is suffering the onset of muscle disorders: it is up to the rider to interpret the signs correctly.

   • 2007, Michael Peace, Lesley Bayley, The Q and a Guide to Understanding Your Horse, page 66,

     When riders are too dominant various problems can arise: a horse may become nappy, or refuse to go forward.

Noun

nappy (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) A kind of strong ale; nappy ale.
   • 1827, R. Charlton, Newcastle Improvements, in T. Thompson, et al. A Collection of Songs, Comic and Satirical, Chiefly in the Newcastle Dialect, page 151,

     Aw?ve seen when we?ve gyen iv a kind, freenly way / To be blithe ower a jug o? good nappy—

   • 1857, Hugh Miller, The Cruise of the Betsey, 2009, Echo Library, page 248,

     Weel do I mind that in a? our neeborly meetings—bridals, christenings, lyke-wakes an? the like,—we entertained ane anither wi? rich nappy ale; […] . But the tea has put out the nappy; an? I have remarked, that by losing the nappy we lost baith ghaists an? fairies.

Etymology 5

Related to knap.

Adjective

nappy (comparative nappier, superlative nappiest)

1. (Scotland) brittle