pap

Meaning

Noun

1. (uncountable) Food in the form of a soft paste, often a porridge, especially as given to very young children.
2. (colloquial, uncountable) Pablum or nonsense.
3. (South-Africa, countable, uncountable) Porridge.
4. (Africa, Nigeria, West, countable, uncountable) A fermented cereal pudding made from corn, sorghum, or millet
5. (countable, derogatory, informal, uncountable) Support from official patronage.
6. (countable, uncountable) The pulp of fruit.

Verb

To feed with pap.

Adj

1. (South-Africa, slang) Weak, feeble; lacking substance.
2. (South-Africa, slang) Spineless, wet, without character.
3. (South-Africa, slang) Flat.

Verb

To take a surreptitious photograph of (someone, especially a celebrity) without their consent.

Verb

Alternative letter-case form of PAP (“post a picture”).

Synonyms

nipple

teat

mush

mamilla

tit

mammilla

pablum

soft diet

pudding

kasha

porridge

spoon food

cornstarch

dap

double talk

drool

dug

fiddle-faddle

folderol

garbage

🗑️

gobbledygook

gruel

hogwash

hot air

locoweed

mumbo jumbo

nonsense

piffle

puree

rack

rigamarole

stir-about

sustenance

taradiddle

thorax

titty

twaddle

abracadabra

mushy food

stuff and nonsense

tarradiddle

udder

applesauce

balderdash

baloney

boloney

bosom

breast

brisket

bunkum

Translations

Brei

bouillie

pappa

pap

papilla

tepel

tétine

Kinderbrei

χυλός

θηλή μαστού

mugró

μαλακή τροφή

ρώγα

τεστ Παπανικολάου

Luftfotografie mit Teleskopstab

Pronounced as (IPA)

/pæp/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: pap

Cognate with Middle Low German: pappe

Cognate with Dutch: pap

Cognate with Swedish: patt

Cognate with Danish: patte

Cognate with Northern Frisian: pap

In summary

From Middle English pap. Related to Middle Low German pappe, Dutch pap, German Pappe (“pap, porridge; wheatpaste; cardboard”), Old French papa/pape, Latin pappa, Bulgarian папам (papam, “to eat”) and Serbo-Croatian папати/papati (“to eat”), among others. The relationships between these words are difficult to reconstruct. The Germanic word is either a borrowing from Latin or, perhaps more probably, an independent formation in baby-talk.