skep

Late Old English sceppe, from Old Norse skeppa (“basket”). Cognate with Danish skæppe (“an old Danish unit of measure equalling 17.4 l”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈskɛp/

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• Rhymes: -ɛp

skep (plural skeps)

1. A basket.
   • 1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 115:

     Old women crouched over bags of Siamese rice, skeps of red and green peppers, purple egg-plants, bristly rambutans, pineapples, durians.

2. A beehive made of straw or wicker.
   • 1958, John Crompton, A Hive of Bees:

     Three of the hives had been overturned and the others had been rocked to and fro. The modern hive is a fearful thing to upset; the combs are not static as in a skep, but hang loosely: when the hive is overturned they smash and pile up like a telescoped train.

   • 1977, Patrick O'Brian, The Mauritius Command:

     He prised a skep from its stool and held it out, inverted, showing the dirty wreck of combs, with the vile grubs spinning their cocoons.

   • 2020, Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet:

     She installs seven skeps at the furthest edge of the garden; on warm July days it is possible to hear the restless rumble of the bees from the house.

• creel
• skip

From Proto-West Germanic *skāp, from Proto-Germanic *skēpą. Cognates include Old English sċēap, Old Saxon skāp and Old Dutch scāp.

• IPA^(key): /ˈskeːp/, [ˈskɛːp]

skēp n

1. sheep

• North Frisian:

  Föhr-Amrum: schep, schap

  Goesharde: schäip

  Helgoland: skēap

  Mooring: schäip

  Sylt: Sjip

  Wiedingharde: sees

• East Frisian:

  Harlingerland Frisian: schaip

  Saterland Frisian: Skäip

  Wangerooge Frisian: schaip

  Wursten Frisian: schepp, scheep

• West Frisian: skiep

  Hindeloopen: skeep

  Schiermonnikoog: schiep

• Norbruis, Stefan (2015) “tserne”, in Etymological Dictionary of West Frisian Farming Vocabulary‎, Leiden: Leiden University, page 43.
• Bremmer, Rolf H. (2009) An Introduction to Old Frisian: History, Grammar, Reader, Glossary, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN

skep

1. first-person singular present indicative active of skepja
2. second-person singular present imperative active of skepja