Etymology
1. O.E.
pipe "musical wind instrument," also "tube to convey water," from V.L.
*pipa "a pipe" (cf. It.
pipa, Fr.
pipe, Ger.
Pfeife, Dan.
pibe, Du.
pijp), a back-formation from L.
pipare "to chirp or peep," of imitative origin. All tubular senses ultimately derive from "small reed, whistle." Meaning "device for smoking" first recorded 1594. The verb sense of "to play on a pipe" is from O.E.
pipian; the meaning "convey through pipes" is first recorded 1889. A
pipe dream (1896) is the sort of improbably fantasy one has while smoking opium.
Piping hot is in Chaucer, a reference to hissing of food in a frying pan; to
pipe up (c.1425) originally meant "to begin to play" (on a musical instrument).
Pipe down "be quiet" first recorded 1900.
2. From Middle English pīpe, pype (“hollow cylinder or tube used as a conduit or container; duct or vessel of the body; musical instrument; financial records maintained by the English Exchequer, pipe roll”), from Old English pīpe (“pipe (musical instrument); the channel of a small stream”), from Proto-West Germanic *pīpā. Reinforced by Vulgar Latin *pīpa, from Latin pipire, pipiare, pipare, from pīpiō (“to chirp, peep”), of imitative origin. Displaced native Old English fealh and Old English þrūh. Doublet of fife.
3. Cognate with Dutch pijp, German Pfeife, Danish pibe, Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk pipe, Swedish pipa, Faroese and Icelandic pípa.
4. The “storage container” and “liquid measure” senses are derived from Middle English pīpe (“large storage receptacle, particularly for wine; cask, vat; measure of volume”), from pīpe (above) and Old French pipe (“liquid measure”). In specific contexts, calques similar units of measure such as Portuguese pipa.
5. The verb is from Middle English pīpen, pypyn (“to play a pipe; to make a shrill sound; to speak with a high-pitched tone”), from Old English pīpian (“to pipe”). See: Latin '
pipire', Danish '
pibe', Swedish '
pipa', Middle English '
pipen'.
Verbs referencing "pipe"
Luxembourgish
päifen, Cimbrian faifan.