pip, noun

Origin:
English, AfrikaansShow more Special sense of English pip the small seed of various fruits such as apples, pears, etc.; perhaps influenced by Afrikaans pit, see pit.
1. The stone found in soft fruits such as peaches, plums, etc. Cf. pit.
1933 J. Juta Look Out for Ostriches 25We did say our rhyme for prune stones, and loquat pips, so golden and brown and numerous.
1949 L.G. Green In Land of Afternoon 156Fruit pips provide floors in the Cape...It takes thousands of pips to cover even a rondavel floor, and the surface is liable to be slippery.
1988 F. Williams Cape Malay Cookbk 62Wash mangoes well, leave skin on and cut into 2 cm chunks, discarding pips.
1991 Best of S. Afr. Short Stories (Reader’s Digest Assoc.) 110The famous peach stone floors (now rare) required thousands of peach pips, which were set close together into moist clay.
2. In the noun phrase peach-pip floor [translation of Afrikaans perskepitvloer], in early Cape houses, a floor of closely-laid peach stones embedded evenly in a clay base; peach-stone floor.
1949 L.G. Green In Land of Afternoon 156The peach-pip floor is still to be found on some farms.
1974 S. Afr. Panorama Sept. 37One becomes acquainted with the lay-out of the kitchen two or three centuries ago,..not forgetting the peach pip floor!
1983 Cape Times 10 Jan. 9The Drostdy Museum in Swellendam..has a fine collection of period furniture and glassware and an unusual peach-pip floor.
1986 [see opstal].
The stone found in soft fruits such as peaches, plums, etc.
In the noun phrase peach-pip floor [translation of Afrikaans perskepitvloer],in early Cape houses, a floor of closely-laid peach stones embedded evenly in a clay base; peach-stone floor.
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19331991