kop, noun

Forms:
Also kope, koup.
Origin:
Afrikaans, DutchShow more Afrikaans, from Dutch, head; peak, hill.
1. A prominent hill or peak; a hill crest. See also koppie.
a. Used as an element in place names.
1835 A. Steedman Wanderings I. 115We uitspanned at a place called Rhenoster Kope, from the supposed resemblance which the mountain bears to the head of a rhinoceros.
1835 C.L. Stretch Journal. 1 Apr.On the following morning the troops..advanced in the direction of T’Slambies Kop, a high point visible from the heights near Graham’s Town.
1900 A.W. Carter Informant, Ladybrand 24 Jan. 3Watched shell after shell fall on and round Cronje’s Kop, sometimes three at a time.
1902 Linesman Words by Eyewitness 81The rocky bush-covered foot of Schwartz Kop.
1903 R. Kipling Five Nations 209From Colesberg Kop to Quagga’s Poort — from Ninety-Nine till now.
1955 D.L. Hobman Olive Schreiner 175Buffels Kop stands over her, buttressing his powerful summit into the sky.
1971 Rand Daily Mail 26 June (Home Owner) 5Two of Johannesburg’s most famous ‘kops’ — Langermann’s Kop..in Kensington, which had been cited as an example of a ‘forgotten’ area, and Pullinger Kop..on the Berea.
1989 P.E. Raper Dict. of Sn Afr. Place Names 339Meintjeskop,..Hill in Pretoria, on which the Union Buildings are situated.
b. Used as a common noun.
a1858 J. Goldswain Chron. (1946) I. 91We saw several Horses greasen on the Kop and thought that we could get them without danger.
1860 A.W. Drayson Sporting Scenes 144Karl and I trudged on for some miles to a little ‘kop’, where we hoped to get a better view round.
1878 H.A. Roche On Trek in Tvl 303One fine Kop or Kopje we passed upon which grazed an immense herd of fine oxen and heifers.
1882 J. Nixon Among Boers 124The town is placed between a kop and a kopjie. On one side is a hill with a flat, long top, covered with patches of bush; and on the other a small irregular elongated ridge.
1882 C. Du Val With Show through Sn Afr. I. 136This little Dutch town, sleeping quietly at the feet of the mountain Kops, that stand sentinel over its slumbers.
1901 L. James in J. Ralph War’s Brighter Side 347The three field batteries then came into action against a high tableland kop which formed the right of the held position.
1903 R. Kipling Five Nations 159Me that ’ave watched ’arf a world, ’Eave up all shiny with dew, Kopje on kop to the sun.
1929 D. Reitz Commando 64For a time there had been talk of an attack by the Free State forces against a loose-standing kop called Wagon Hill.
1939 tr. of E.N. Marais’s My Friends the Baboons 14On one side the kloof was bordered by a krans, two to three hundred feet high, and on the other by a kop so steep that it could almost be called a krans too.
1949 H. Gibbs Twilight in S. Afr. 126Wide, flat lands which stretch from horizon to horizon, with only the sudden rise of a table-mountain or a kop, sharply pointed, breaking the view and shaping the hot sky’s blueness.
1955 D.L. Hobman Olive Schreiner 124Give back my dead! They who by kop and fountain, First saw the light upon my rocky breast!
1965 A. Gordon-Brown S. Afr. Heritage II. 24Behind the town of Swellendam are found conspicuous peaks which form a natural sundial, and for more that two hundred years these have been known to local farmers as 10 uur, 11 uur, 12 uur and 1 uur Kop.
1970 R. Maytham Informant, Empangeni, KwaZulu-NatalWe traversed the kop and surveyed the scenery.
1990 A. Goldman in Motorist 4th Quarter 7The tribe [of baboons]..had time to scramble to the top of the kop from where they could roll rocks down the hill to frighten off attackers.
2. colloquial. Head; intelligence.
1881 E. London Dispatch & Frontier Advertiser 19 Jan. 3Why! what is this, a night cap, a scotch cap, or what?..Here is some writing: ‘for anyone suffering from rheumatics in the kop’.
1906 H. Rider Haggard Benita 83‘Too much in his kop,’ and she tapped her forehead.
1909 N. Paul Child in Midst 123An’ presently ’is missus come in an’ chucked some water on my kop, an’ tied a rag round it.
1937 S. Cloete Turning Wheels 348That young man has something in his kop. He was right and we were wrong.
1958 I. Vaughan Diary 57Mr H. said Mr Vaughan she jes took a mok and kepped me on my koup. Look how she scryched me.
1970 A. van den Berg Informant, Pretoria, GautengMy father says that when doing arithmetic I must use my kop.
1970 C. Banach Informant, Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha), Eastern CapeUse your kop before you answer back.
1973 Cape Times 8 Mar. 7A tight little bollatjie of hair at the top of the kop.
1973 J. Cope Alley Cat 167‘Did Bruce Young bring you?’ ‘Yeh...crazy ou with a bald kop.’
1976 J. McClure in Sunday Times 19 Feb. (Mag. Sect.) 8’Er, well sort of like a hobo, sir. There’s cuts on his kop from falling down in the gutter.
1989 B. Ronge in Sunday Times 19 Feb. (Mag. Sect.) 8This is a competition I could win. This one takes a bit of kop, you have to respond to words and images to piece together clues.
1991 G. De Beer Informant, Port Nolloth, Northern CapeOne day you’ll leave your kop behind too...That guy really has kop (intelligence).
3. slang. A head-butt.
1972 Sunday Tribune 16 July 3Squawk just swore at him. ‘So the CID man gave him three quick kops (butted him in the face)..
A prominent hill or peak; a hill crest.
Used as an element in place names.
Used as a common noun.
Head; intelligence.
A head-butt.
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