kelp
/kɛlp/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.87 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any of several large brown algae seaweeds (especially of order Laminariales).
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Underneath the area demarcated by the buoys, Ms Puckett plants kelp—a type of seaweed—on long ropes that resemble washing lines."
- "Just before we reached Seward the pilot got a radio message that a fishing boat in Thumb Cove had some kelp […] Neither of us had ever kelped before but there wasn't much to it, and we started bringing in full boxes back to Eads' barge."
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English *kelpe, culpe, *kilpe (Early Modern English kilpe), of unclear origin, though the attested forms point to Old English *cylp, possibly from Proto-West Germanic *kulpi, from Proto-Germanic *kulpiz (“lump, boll”, referencing the airsacks of species such as bladderwrack and knotweed), potentially a substrate term connected to Latin globus (“globe”) and Proto-Germanic *klumpô (“clump”). If the above theory is accepted, cognate with Low German Kulp, Külp, Kulpe (“lump in the eye, ball, thick nose”), Norwegian Nynorsk kulp (“short tube”), and Swedish kulp (“stout person”); further compare Bavarian Kolpel (“lump of stone”), Icelandic kúlpa (“to protrude”), Low German kulpen, külpen (“to pile up”), Low German Kulpogen (“large eye”), and West Frisian kolpje (“to pout”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *cylp, *kulpi, *kulpiz, kelpe, kilpr
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /kɛlp/
- British English: /kɛlp/