Chops

The face, is allied to the Latin caput, the head; Greek κεγαλ-oζ, Anglo-Saxon ceafel, the snout; in the plural, the cheeks. We talk of a “pig’s chap.”

⁂ The Latin cap-ut gives us the word chap, a fellow or man; and its alliance with chop gives us the term “chapped” hands, etc. Everyone knows the answer given to the girl who complained of chapped lips: “My dear, you should not let the chaps come near your lips.”

Down in the chops—i.e. down in the mouth in a melancholy state; with the mouth drawn down. (Anglo-Saxon, cealf, the snout or jaw; Icelandic, kiaptr.)

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

Chops

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