rapper

See also: Rapper

English

Alternative forms

• rappuh

Etymology

Etymology tree

English rap

Proto-Indo-European *-yósder.

Proto-Italic *-āzios

Latin -āriusnom.

Latin -āriusbor.

Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz

Proto-West Germanic *-ārī

Old English -ere

Middle English -ere

English -er

English rapper

From rap + -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹæpɚ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Homophone: wrapper
• Rhymes: -æpə(ɹ)

Noun

rapper (plural rappers)

1. One who, or that which, raps or knocks.
   1. The knocker of a door.
   2. (historical, mining) A swinging knocker for making signals at the mouth of a shaft.
   3. A spiritualistic medium who claims to receive communications from spirits in the form of knocking sounds.
2. (music) A performer of rap music, or someone who raps in any form of music.

   He rose from the ghetto to become a successful rapper.

   • 2023 September 5, Joe Coscarelli, “Ghostwriter Returns With an A.I. Travis Scott Song, and Industry Allies”, in The New York Times‎^[1], archived from the original on 3 November 2023:

     On Tuesday, Ghostwriter returned with a new track, titled “Whiplash,” this time using A.I. vocal filters to sound like the rappers Travis Scott and 21 Savage and deliver a message to the industry: “Me and Writer raise a toast,” the A.I. version of 21 Savage raps. “Trying to shadowban my boy/but you can’t kill a ghost.”

3. (obsolete, Scotland) A sword.
4. A flexible strip of metal, 45-60cm long, with handles at each end, used for Northumbrian rapper sword dancing.
5. A mechanical, or later electric, signalling device formerly used in the mines of north-eastern England to signal to the engineman that the cages carrying men or coals up and down the shaft were ready to be raised or lowered.
6. (colloquial, dated) A bold lie; a whopper.
7. (colloquial, dated) A loud oath.

Derived terms

• backarapper
• backpack rapper
• back-rapper
• battle rapper
• (c)rapper
• crapper
• rapper sword
• raptivist

Translations

one who knocks

• Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can

performer of rap music, or one who raps

• Afrikaans: kletsrymer (af)
• Arabic: رابر m or f (rābar)
• Armenian: ռեպեր (hy) (ṙeper)
• Bulgarian: ра́пър m (rápăr)
• Catalan: raper m, rapera f
• Dutch: rapper (nl) m
• Finnish: räppäri (fi), rappari (fi)
• French: rappeur (fr) m, rappeuse (fr) f
• Galician: rapeiro m, rapeira f
• German: Rapper (de) m, Rapperin (de) f
• Greek: ράπερ (el) (ráper)
• Icelandic: rappari (is) m
• Indonesian: raper
• Irish: ceoltóir rap m
• Japanese: ラッパー (ja) (rappa)
• Korean: 래퍼 (ko) (raepeo)
• Marathi: रॅपर m (rĕpar)
• Occitan: rapaire (oc) m, rapaira f
• Polish: raper (pl) m
• Portuguese: rapper (pt) m or f
• Russian: рэ́пер (ru) m (rɛ́per), рэ́ппер (ru) m (rɛ́pper)
• Scots: rapper
• Spanish: rapero m, rapera f
• Swahili: repa
• Swedish: rappare (sv) c
• Turkish: rapçi
• Zazaki: repwan c

lie

• Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can

sword

• Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can

fake sword

• Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can

signal device

• Bulgarian: чукало (bg) n (čukalo)

Anagrams

• RepRap

Danish

Etymology 1

Noun

rapper c (singular definite rapperen, plural indefinite rappere)

1. rapper (practitioner of rap music)

Declension

Declension of rapper

common gender	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	rapper	rapperen	rappere	rapperne
genitive	rappers	rapperens	rapperes	rappernes

Verb

rapper

1. present of rappe

Etymology 2

Verb

rapper

1. present of rappe

Dutch

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈrɑpər/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: rap‧per
• Rhymes: -ɑpər

Adjective

rapper

1. comparative degree of rap

Etymology 2

From English rapper. By surface analysis, rappen +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈrɛpər/ or as in English

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: rap‧per

Noun

rapper m (plural rappers, diminutive rappertje n)

1. rapper (performer of rap music)

French

Etymology 1

From English rap +‎ -er.

Alternative forms

• raper

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁa.pe/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

rapper

1. (music) to speak (lyrics) in the style of rap music

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English rapper.

Alternative forms

• rappeur (more common)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁa.pœʁ/

Noun

rapper m (plural rappers)

1. (music) rapper

Portuguese

Noun

rapper m or f by sense (plural rappers)

1. rapper (hip-hop performer)

Further reading

• “rapper”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “rapper”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English rapper.

Noun

rapper m (plural rapperi)

1. rapper

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	rapper	rapperul	rapperi	rapperii
genitive-dative	rapper	rapperului	rapperi	rapperilor
vocative	rapperule		rapperilor

Spanish

Alternative forms

• ráper

Etymology

Etymology tree

English rap

Proto-Indo-European *-yósder.

Proto-Italic *-āzios

Latin -āriusnom.

Latin -āriusbor.

Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz

Proto-West Germanic *-ārī

Old English -ere

Middle English -ere

English -er

English rapperubor.

Spanish rapper

Unadapted borrowing from English rapper.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈrapeɾ/ [ˈra.peɾ]
• Rhymes: -apeɾ

Noun

rapper m or f by sense (plural rappers)

1. rapper (hip-hop performer)

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Related terms

• rap