lapp | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

2 entries found.

native name for "Lapp," preferred by modern scholars, 1797, from the Lapp self-designation; it is of uncertain origin.

northernmost part of the Scandinavian peninsula, 1570s, from Lapp, the Swedish name for this Finnic people (their name for themselves was Sabme), which probably originally was an insulting coinage (compare Middle High German lappe "simpleton"). "Formerly, the fabled home of witches and magicians, who had power to send winds and tempests" [OED]. Related: Laplander.

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