Etymology
Originally card game slang, meaning “exceeding 21 points” in the blackjack family of games, in which the goal is to collect cards withoug going over 21 points. Probably borrowed from Italian troppo (“too much”)[1] (possibly via Serbo-Croatian tropa),[2] from Vulgar Latin *troppus, from Late Latin troppus, from Frankish *þorp (“cluster, agglomeration; collection of houses, village”), from Proto-Germanic *þurpą (“village”), from Proto-Indo-European *trab-, *treb- (“dwelling, room”). First attested in 1881.[1]
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ˈtropɒ]
- Hyphenation: tro‧pa
- Rhymes: -pɒ
References
tropa in Károly Gerstner, editor, Új magyar etimológiai szótár [New Etymological Dictionary of Hungarian] (ÚESz.), Online edition (beta version), Budapest: MTA Research Institute for Linguistics / Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics, 2011–2024.
tropa in Tótfalusi, István. Magyar etimológiai nagyszótár (’Hungarian Comprehensive Dictionary of Etymology’). Budapest: Arcanum Adatbázis, 2001; Arcanum DVD Könyvtár →ISBN