Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun obsolete amount that can be held in two hands cupped together
- noun obsolete two hands cupped together
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word yepsen.
Examples
-
"zone_info": "huffpost. politics/blog; featured-posts = 1; iowa = 1; politics = 1; yahoo = 1; nickname = charlie-rose; entry_id = 79393; barack-obama-iowa = 1; charlie-rose = 1; david-yepsen = 1; iowa-caucuses = 1",
Charlie Rose: My Conversation with David Yepsen of the Des Moines Register on the Iowa Caucuses 2008
-
HPConfig. blog_id = 0; var ads_page_type = 'bpage'; var zone_info = "huffpost. politics/blog; featured-posts = 1; iowa = 1; politics = 1; yahoo = 1; nickname = charlie-rose; entry_id = 79393; barack-obama-iowa = 1; charlie-rose = 1; david-yepsen = 1; iowa-caucuses = 1"; if (top!
Charlie Rose: My Conversation with David Yepsen of the Des Moines Register on the Iowa Caucuses 2008
super-kawy commented on the word yepsen
The amount that can be held in two hands cupped together; also, the two cupped hands themselves.
May 2, 2009
yarb commented on the word yepsen
This is rather nifty. Did you make it up?
May 2, 2009
violet_sphinx commented on the word yepsen
The Oxford English Dictionary defines yepsen as, "The two hands placed together so as to form a bowl-shaped cavity; as much as can be held in this," and notes that is obscure and possibly dialectical. It is linked with gowpen, and the earliest cited usage is circa 1325.
The original post is, I believe, a direct quote from Ammon Shea's book, "Reading the OED", which includes this delightful word!
January 16, 2011