mope

See also: море (Cyrillic)

English

Etymology

Late Middle English (as a noun meaning "simpleton, fool"), probably related to mop (“young of an animal, moppet”).

Alternatively, of North Germanic origin, related to Swedish mopa (“to sulk”), Danish måbe, themselves borrowed from Low German mopen (“to make faces, gape”), of uncertain ultimate origin, but compare Proto-West Germanic *mauwu (“protruding lip, pout”). Compare also German muffen, French moue.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /məʊp/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /moʊp/
• Rhymes: -əʊp

Verb

mope (third-person singular simple present mopes, present participle moping, simple past and past participle moped)

1. (intransitive) To carry oneself in a depressed, lackadaisical manner; to give oneself up to low spirits; to pout, sulk.
2. (transitive) To make spiritless and stupid.

Derived terms

• mope about
• mope around
• moper
• mopery
• mopey

 

Translations

be depressed

Catalan: defallir (ca), desanimar-se (ca), marfondre's (ca) Mandarin: 懶散的／懒散的 Chinese: Czech: být jako tělo bez duše impf, být sklíčený impf Galician: desanimarse, perder o ánimo Hungarian: búslakodik (hu), szomorkodik (hu), búsul (hu) Italian: piangersi addosso Maori: wherū Slovak: zhrýzať sa Spanish: desanimarse (es), llorisquear (es) Swedish: deppa (sv) (informal)

Noun

mope (plural mopes)

1. The act of moping

   When she gets upset, she has a little mope, and then gets over it.

2. (archaic) A dull, spiritless person.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:

     putting gulleries on some or other till they have made by their humouring or gulling ex stulto insanum, a mope or a noddy

   Synonym: mopus

3. (pornography industry) A bottom feeder who "mopes" around a pornography studio hoping for his big break and often does bit parts in exchange for room and board and meager pay.
   • 2011: LA Weekly, documenting uses dating to the 1990s

     The porn industry is many things. Subtle is not one of them. So when Porn Inc. went searching for a job title for people like Stephen Hill, the choice was "mope." It's based on the off-camera life of these fringe actors, hangers-on who mope around the studios hoping for a bit role, which if they're lucky might bring them $50 plus food — and the chance to have sex with a real, live woman.

See also

• mope-eyed

Anagrams

• poem, pome, poëm

Sranan Tongo

Etymology

From Kari'na mope.

Noun

mope

1. hog plum, Spondias mombin

Descendants

• → Dutch: mopé

Yola

Etymology

Cognate with English mope.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɔːp/

Noun

mope

1. fool, astonished
   • 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 12, page 88:

     Licke a mope an a mile, he gazt ing a mize;

     Like a fool in a mill, he looked in amazement;

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 57