# How do you spell...uh..."kipe"?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 21, 2007, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817 "2007-12-21T09:07:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/1 "2007-12-21T09:07:38Z")
As in a friendly sort of theft.
As in, when you went through the kitchen you kiped (kayped? caiped? keiped?) a cookie. When you went through the office lunchroom you kyped a donut.
I am a good speller, really I am. I have heard this word but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it. It’s giving me agita.
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### Author:  [@Random](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Random)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/2 "2007-12-21T09:18:39Z")
Sure you’re not thinking of swipe?
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### Author:  [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/3 "2007-12-21T09:19:36Z")
[QUOTE=Random]
Sure you’re not thinking of swipe?
[/QUOTE]
I’m sure. It does rhyme though.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/4 "2007-12-21T09:22:10Z")
> **[Urban Dictionary: kipe](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=kipe)**
>
> verb. Also, kype. 1. To steal, pilfer, or swipe something of small value, e.g. a candy bar or some other commonly shop-lifted item. If fading use. primarily regional to the American Paific Northwest. From the Old English "kip", menaing "to snatch" or...
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### Author:  [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/5 "2007-12-21T09:24:20Z")
[QUOTE=Hilarity N. Suze]
As in, when you went through the kitchen you kiped (kayped? caiped? keiped?) a cookie. When you went through the office lunchroom you kyped a donut.
[/QUOTE]
[kipe](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=kipe)
I have heard _klept_ (from kleptomaniac).
Si (eta: too slow :smack: )
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### Author:  [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/6 "2007-12-21T10:25:53Z")
It’s also possible you’re hearing _kike,_ as in meaning #12 [here](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=kike&page=2), a verb meaning “steal.” It’s highly offensive, by the way. I never heard it until I moved to the western U.S., and I’m sad to say that I hear it frequently there, often with no ill intent on the speaker’s part, as well as no understanding that it’s a slur. Clearly “kike,” in my experience, not “kipe.” You might want to check this out since we have two words with similar sounds used in approximately the same way.
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### Author:  [@hocow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hocow)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/7 "2007-12-21T12:48:35Z")
I had always heard it as [kife](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Kife)
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### Author:  [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/8 "2007-12-21T13:12:45Z")
From my memory, and a swift examination of online resources, it appears that “kipe” is the correct spelling, with “kype” an idiomatic or regional variation; “kife” does not appear to be in very common use, and may be a mistake, and “kike” as a synonym or variant of “kipe” is just too bizarre for words.
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### Author:  [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/9 "2007-12-21T15:09:14Z")
Doesn’t “cop” work, too?
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/10 "2007-12-21T15:14:49Z")
My experience is kipe = nick.
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### Author:  [@BJMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BJMoose)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/11 "2007-12-21T15:37:37Z")
I’ve always thought it is spelled _kype_ (but can’t recall ever actually writing the word). Alas, Webster’s Ninth Collegiate has nothing on it (I looked for several variations).
I wonder if it originated as a dialectical past participle of _cop_; or perhaps a portmanteau of _cop_ and _swipe_.
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### Author:  [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/12 "2007-12-21T16:40:41Z")
> [@](#):
>
> “kike” as a synonym or variant of “kipe” is just too bizarre for words.
And yet, I assure you that it is actively used.
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### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/13 "2007-12-21T16:59:43Z")
[QUOTE=Nametag]
kike" as a synonym or variant of “kipe” is just too bizarre for words.
[/QUOTE]
Not really. I remember “jew” being used as a verb meaning the same thing when I was at school. “Who’s jewed my ruler?” Nasty and offensive, sure, but then so are schoolkids. 😛
Other racial or social-class-related nouns were used as verbs in the same way, e.g. “chav” and “pikey” (“chavved” and “pikied” being the inflected forms).
Never heard “kipe”, though, so sorry about the hijack…
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/14 "2007-12-21T17:01:22Z")
[QUOTE=Shoshana]
And yet, I assure you that it is actively used.
[/QUOTE]
I think if “kike” is being used in that way, it’s off a variant of “kipe”, though. That meaning doesn’t come from anti-Semitism.
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### Author:  [@UncaStuart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncaStuart)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/15 "2007-12-21T17:06:51Z")
Always heard/used kipe to mean snatch; never heard kike used as a verb. (50s & 60s California.)
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### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/16 "2007-12-21T17:18:26Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Amazing]
I think if “kike” is being used in that way, it’s off a variant of “kipe”, though. That meaning doesn’t come from anti-Semitism.
[/QUOTE]
Not necessarily - see my post directly above yours.
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/17 "2007-12-21T17:20:20Z")
It’s conditional on where you live, innit? Some of our Celtic brothers spell it “cope,” as in, “I absolutely cannot kipe with alla different brands of mustard here.” Some other folks spell it “cape,” as in, “Ama drive ta Kipe Canivverrl Satdy. Wanna go?” 😉
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### Author:  [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/18 "2007-12-21T17:37:46Z")
[QUOTE=UncaStuart]
Always heard/used kipe to mean snatch; never heard kike used as a verb. (50s & 60s California.)
[/QUOTE]
Same here. Used in late 50- early 60s in California.
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### Author:  [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/19 "2007-12-21T17:51:45Z")
I’ve never heard this. Obviously it’s a regionalism, but where are you located? Other posters who have heard it all seem to be from California or the Western US.
In the context of taking some donuts from a table as I passed by, I would say I “swiped” or “poached” them to indicate that I was not, in fact, originally expected or entitled to take them by whoever laid them out, and that said person was not there to see me do it.
I’ve rarely heard the term “Jew” used as a verb; when I have it’s always been in the context of haggling or bargaining with a negative result for the speaker, and clearly anti-Semitic in origin (“I tried to get \ for it, but the guy jewed me down to \<85% of X\>”). When called on it, the speakers generally express surprise that it’s offensive, much like the use of “gyp” to mean cheat or deceive is so commonly used that not everyone realizes it’s an ethnic reference to Gypsies.
In fact, the last two people I called on it claimed it was as much a compliment as anything else, since “they” (the Jews) “pride themselves on getting the best deal, don’t they?”
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### Author:  [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2007, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-spell-uh-kipe/430817/20 "2007-12-21T18:10:32Z")
[QUOTE=robardin]
I’ve never heard this. Obviously it’s a regionalism, but where are you located? Other posters who have heard it all seem to be from California or the Western US.
[/QUOTE]
Heard and used kipe. Not so much a friendly swiping of something as a spur of the moment thing. Grabbing on the way by. Minnesota.
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