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cheap

  • /ˈt͡ʃiːp/
  • [ˈt͡ʃʰɪi̯p]

Sounds like cheep (in dialects with meet-meat merger) · Rhymes with -iːp

Where it comes from

As a noun, from Middle English chep, from Old English cēap (“trade, market, value”), from Proto-West Germanic *kaup. As a verb, from Middle English chepen, from Old English ċēapian (“to buy, bargain, trade”), from Proto-West Germanic *kaupōn, from Proto-Germanic *kaupōną, a verbal derivative of *kaupô (“trader”), from Latin caupō.

The adjective originated as a shortening of Middle and Early Modern English good cheap, literally “good purchase” (as in “that was good cheap”, i.e. “that was [a] good purchase”). Compare Dutch goedkoop, French bon marché.

Cognates

Cognate with Scots chepe (“to sell”), chape (“sale price”), North Frisian keap (“purchase”), West Frisian keap (“purchase, buy, acquisition”), Dutch koop (“buy, purchase, deal”), kopen (“to buy, purchase, shop”), Low German kopen (“to buy”), German Kauf (“trade, traffic, bargain, purchase, buy”), kaufen (“to buy”), Swedish köp (“bargain, purchase”), köpa (“to buy, purchase”), Norwegian Nynorsk kjøpa (“to buy, purchase”), Icelandic kaup (“purchase, bargain”), kaupa (“to purchase”); also borrowed as Finnish kauppa (“shop, trade”), Russian купить (kupitʹ, “to purchase”), Old Church Slavonic коупити (kupiti, “to purchase”), Bulgarian ку́пя (kúpja, “to purchase”), Serbo-Croatian купити (“to purchase”), Czech koupit (“to purchase”), Polish kupić (“to purchase”).

adjective cheaper · cheapest · chap · chop · ch3ap

  1. Low or reduced in price. Where there are many sellers and few purchases, land will be cheap.
  2. Of poor quality. a writer of cheap romances
  3. Of little worth. You grow cheap in every subject's eye.
  4. slang Underhanded or unfair. the cheap trick of hiding deadly lava under pushable blocks
  5. derogatory, informal Stingy; mean; excessively frugal. Insurance is expensive, but don't be so cheap that you risk losing your home because of a fire.
  6. Trading at a price level which is low relative to historical trends, a similar asset, or (for derivatives) a theoretical value. The ETF is trading cheap to NAV right now; we can arb this by buying the ETF and selling the underlying constituents.
  7. Taking little of system time or resources. the algorithm is cheap to compute

Similar: bargainous, brand X, budget, cheap, cheapie, cheapo, cheesy, competitive, dime a dozen, economic, economical, el cheapo

noun cheaps · chap · chop · ch3ap

  1. countable, obsolete, uncountable Trade; traffic; chaffer; chaffering.
  2. countable, obsolete, uncountable A market; marketplace.
  3. countable, obsolete, uncountable Price.
  4. countable, obsolete, uncountable A low price; a bargain. The sack that thou hast drunk me would have bought me lights as good cheap at the dearest chandler's in Europe.
  5. countable, obsolete, uncountable Cheapness; lowness of price; abundance of supply.

verb cheaps · cheaping · cheaped · chap · chop

  1. intransitive, obsolete To trade; traffic; bargain; chaffer; ask the price of goods; cheapen goods.
  2. obsolete, transitive To bargain for; chaffer for; ask the price of; offer a price for; cheapen.
  3. obsolete, transitive To buy; purchase.
  4. obsolete, transitive To sell.

adverb more cheap · most cheap · chap · chop · ch3ap

  1. obsolete Cheaply. I bought this cheap in a junk shop.

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