From en.wiktionary.org:
[Appendix:Variations of "dab"]
** English
*** Pronunciation
- [en]
- [en]
- [en]
*** Etymology 1
From [en], probably of [en] origin, related to Old [is], perhaps ultimately
[en].[1] Compare also with [dum] ([nl]), [nl], possibly [de].
The noun is from [en], from the verb. Related to [en]. Compare also [en],
[en].
African-American sense of “playful box” perhaps influenced by [en].
**** Verb
[en-verb]
1. [en] To press lightly in a repetitive motion with a soft object without rubbing.
2. [en] To apply a substance in this way.
3. To strike by a thrust; to hit with a sudden blow or thrust.
4. * 1532-1533 , [Thomas More] , _The Confutation of Tyndale's Answer_
5. *: to DABBE him in the necke
6. * {{ quote-web
|en |date=August 22, 2025 |author=Mike Henson |title=England open World Cup
with 11-try win over USA |work=BBC Sport
|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/articles/cn92pvd8ynvo
|passage=Breach hit a line, Zoe Harrison DABBED a kick in behind and Abby Dow
chased like fury.}}
1. [en] To apply hash oil to a heated surface for the purpose of efficient combustion.
2. [en] To perform the dab dance move; to move both arms, parallel with one's head, to either side of the body.
3. * {{ quote-song | en | year=2019 | author=w:Stormzy | title=w:Vossi Bop
|passage=Look, my bruddas don't DAB, we just vossi bop}}
1. [en] [en] ( _to mark a bingo card_ )
***** Derived terms
[en]
***** Translations
[softly tap]
- Bulgarian: [bg]
- Czech: [cs] , [cs] , [cs] , [cs]
- Esperanto: [eo]
- French: [fr] , [fr]
- German: [de]
- Mandarin: [cmn]
- Portuguese: [pt]
[trans-bottom]
[apply softly tapping]
- Bulgarian: [bg] , [bg]
- Czech: [cs]
- German: [de]
- Mandarin: [cmn]
- Portuguese: [pt]
- Ukrainian: [uk] , [uk]
[trans-bottom]
[perform the dance move]
- Dutch: [nl]
- French: [fr]
- Japanese: [ja]
[trans-bottom]
**** Noun
[en-noun]
1. A soft tap or blow ; a blow or peck from a bird's beak; an aimed blow.
2. * [en]
3. * [en]
4. * [en]
5. [en] A soft, playful box given in greeting or approval.
6. * [en]
7. * [en]
8. * [en]
9. A small amount, a blob of some soft or wet substance.
1. [en] A small amount of [hash oil] .
10. [en] Fingerprint .
11. * [en]
12. [en] A hip hop dance move in which the dancer simultaneously drops the head while raising an arm, briefly resting their face in the elbow, as if sneezing into their elbow.
13. [en] A dabbler .
***** Derived terms
- dab pen
- poor dab
- smack-dab
***** Related terms
- [en]
- [en]
- [en]
***** Descendants
- [ga]
***** Translations
[soft tap]
- Bulgarian: [bg]
- Czech: [cs]
- Finnish: [fi] , [fi]
- German: [de]
- Greek: [el]
- Swedish: [sv]
[trans-bottom]
[small amount, blob]
- Bulgarian: [bg]
- Czech: [cs] , [cs] , [cs] , [cs] , [cs]
- Finnish: [fi] , [fi]
- German: [de] , [de]
- Greek: [el]
- Irish: [ga]
- Swedish: [sv]
[trans-bottom]
[fingerprint]
**** Adverb
[-]
1. With a dab, or sudden contact .
***** Translations
[with a dab] [trans-bottom]
**** See also
- [en] < !-- unrelated, from Latin via Old French, but similar sense and usage -->
*** Etymology 2
Unknown. First use in print was in 1691, in _吴语: The Athenian Mercury_; it is
also found in the _Dictionary of the Canting Crew_ of 1698; see quotations for
both. Originally used in the cant of criminals, and later in school
slang.[2][3] It may be a profound alteration of [en],<ref name="www"/> likely
from deliberate slangy usage thereof (rather than natural sound-change), which
if true would give such earlier forms as _*adep_ (or _*dept_) > _*dep_ >
_*deb_.
**** Noun
[en-noun]
1. One who is skilful or proficient ; an expert; an adept .
2. * {{ quote-journal | en
|year=1691 |journal=w:The Athenian Mercury |editor=w:John Dunton
|location=London
|url=https://archive.org/details/pub_athenian-gazette-or-casuistical-mercury
|volume=4|number=3|section=Queſt[ion] 8
|sectionurl=https://archive.org/details/sim_athenian-gazette-or-casuistical-mercury_1691-10-06_4_3/page/n1/mode/1up?q=%22Quelt.+8.%22&view=theater
|page=2|column=2
|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/sim_athenian-gazette-or-casuistical-mercury_1691-10-06_4_3/page/n1/mode/1up?q=%22dab%22&view=theater
|passage=for little Urchin as he is, he‘s ſuch a DAB at his Bow and Arrows‘
that ne‘re a Finsbury Archer of ‘em all can pretend to come near him.}}
1. * {{ quote-book | en
|year=[1698] |title=A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the
Canting Crew |compiler=B. E. |publisher=W. Hawes |location=London
|section=DA |column=1 |page=53
|pageurl=https://archive.org/details/newdictionaryoft00begeuoft/page/n53/mode/1up?view=theater
|text= DAB, c. expert exquiſite in Roguery a Rumdab, c. a very Dextrous
fellow at fileing , thieving, Cheating, Sharping, sc. Heii a DAB at it, He is
well vers'd in it.}}
1. * {{ quote-book | en
|origyear=1759 |original=The Bee: A Select Collection of Essays on The Most
Interesting and Entertaining Subjects |by=w:Oliver Goldsmith |deriv=reprint
|year=1869 |title=The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith |author=w:David
Mather Masson |edition_plain=The Globe Edition |publisher=w:Macmillan & Co.
|location=London |page=353
|pageurl=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_miscellaneous_works_of_Oliver_Goldsm/4D4CAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=dab&pg=RA1-PA353&printsec=frontcover
|passage=One excels at a plan or the title page, another works away at the
body of the book, and the third is a DAB at an index.}}
1. * {{ quote-book | en
|year=1790 |title=Love and Freindship [sic] |author=w:Jane Austen
|format=manuscript |newversion=first published in |year2=1922 |title2=Love &
Freindship and Other Early Works |2ndauthor=J. R. Sanders |location2=New
York |publisher2=Frederick A. Stokes Company |chapter=A Collection of Letters
|page=149
|pageurl=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Love_and_Freindship.djvu/173
|passage=I hope he will like my answer; it is as good a one as I can write
though nothing to his; Indeed I had always heard what a DAB he was at a
Love-letter.}}
***** Derived terms
- [en]
- [en]
- [en]
***** Translations
[expert; adept]
- Bulgarian: [bg] , [bg]
- Greek: [el]
- Mandarin: [cmn]
- Swedish: [sv]
[trans-bottom]
***** References
References:
[1]. [dab]
[2]. [pos=n.³] ; _apud_ [R:Etymonline]
[3]. [date=2000 May 27]
[4]. Skeat, W. W. (2013). An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. United States: Dover Publications, p. 152
[5]. [pages=260; 273]
*** Etymology 3
Late [en], of [en] origin; perhaps related to [en] as in "a soft mass _dabbed_
down."[4]
**** Noun
[en-noun]
1. [en] A small flatfish of the family [Pleuronectidae] , especially [Limanda limanda] ; a flounder.
2. [en] A sand dab , a small flatfish of genus [Citharichthys] .
***** Descendants
- [ga]
***** Translations
[flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae]
- Bulgarian: [bg]
- Catalan: [ca]
- Faroese: [fo]
- Galician: [gl]
- Greek: [el]
- Irish: [ga]
- Mandarin: [cmn] , [cmn]
- Norman: [nrf]
- Scots: [sco]
[trans-bottom]
*** Etymology 4
[backslang] for [en].
**** Adjective
[en-adj]
1. [en] Bad .
2. * {{ quote-book
|en |year=1851 |author=w:Henry Mayhew |chapter=Habits and Amusements of
Costermongers |title=w:London Labour and the London Poor
|url=https://archive.org/details/b20415606_001 |volume=1 |page=11
|passage=Business topics are discussed in a most peculiar style. One man
takes the pipe from his mouth and says, "Bill made a doogheno hit this
morning." "Jem," says another, to a man just entering, "you'll stand a top o'
reeb?" "On," answers Jem, "I've had a trosseno tol, and have been doing DAB."
}}
1. * {{ quote-book
|en |year=2012 |title=The Streets |author=Anthony Quinn |isbn=9780224096928
|page=33 |passage=One afternoon, arriving at his stall later than usual, I
said, almost unknowingly, 'A doogheno or a dabheno?' Jo, who had often chaffed
me for my awkward mimicking of coster language, didn't even look up from
peeling his apple. '<!-- --> DAB,' he said, with a little shake of his head.
}}
*** References
References:
[1]. [dab]
[2]. [pos=n.³] ; _apud_ [R:Etymonline]
[3]. [date=2000 May 27]
[4]. Skeat, W. W. (2013). An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. United States: Dover Publications, p. 152
[5]. [pages=260; 273]
*** Further reading
- [pedia]
- [dab (dance)]
- Oxford English Dictionary (1989)
- [R:OneLook]
*** See also
- [en] , [en] , [en] [etymologically relation unclear]
*** Anagrams
- [en]
[en]
** Dutch
*** Etymology
Borrowed from [nl].
*** Pronunciation
- [nl]
- [nl]
- [nl]
- [nl]
*** Noun
[m]
1. [nl] the [en] [hip-hop dance move]
**** Related terms
- [nl]
** Indonesian
[lang=id]
*** Pronunciation
- [id]
- [id]
*** Etymology 1
From [id], a shortening of the word [en].
**** Noun
[id-noun]
1. dub : the replacement of a voice part in a movie or cartoon, particularly with a translation; an instance of dubbing
***** Derived terms
{{col|id |mengedab |pengedaban }}
*** Etymology 2
From [id], from [id].
**** Noun
[id-noun]
1. dabb lizard , [Egyptian mastigure] , [Egyptian spiny-tailed lizard] , [Leptien's mastigure] , [Egyptian uromastyx] , or [Egyptian dabb lizard] ( [Uromastyx aegyptia] )
*** Etymology 3
[id]
**** Noun
[id-noun]
1. a kind of mat measuring approximately 2 m, made of woven pandan leaves that are connected by stitching
*** Further reading
- [R:KBBI Daring]
** Maltese
[d-w-b]
*** Alternative forms
- [mt]
*** Etymology
From [mt].
*** Pronunciation
- [mt]
*** Verb
[jdub] [mt]
1. to melt [become liquid, especially through warmth]
2. to disappear
3. to become emaciated
4. to show tender feeling s
**** Conjugation
[d]
** Somali
*** Noun
[g=m]
1. fire
2. firearm
*** Verb
[so]
1. to trap
2. to ensnare
*** References
- [page=89]
- [page=167]
[so]
** Sumerian
*** Romanization
[sux-rom]
1. [sux]
** White Hmong
[mww]
*** Pronunciation
[mww-pron]
*** Etymology 1
From [mww]; related to [och] [頸].[5]
**** Noun
[mww]
1. [mww] neck or other narrow object
***** Derived terms
{{col2|mww |caj dab<t:neck> |dab teg<t:wrist> |dab taws<t:ankle> }}
*** Etymology 2
From [mww].<ref name=Ratliff>[page=273]
**** Noun
[mww]
1. (evil ) spirit , considered responsible for epileptic attacks among other things
2. demon
3. monster
***** Derived terms
{{col2|mww |qaug dab peg |dab tsuam }}
*** Etymology 3
From [mww].<ref name=Ratliff />
**** Noun
[mww] [mww]
1. a trough , a hollowed out length of log etc.
***** Derived terms
{{col2|mww |dab npua<t:a trough for pig food> |dab dej<t:a trough for holding
water> |dab nees<t:a horse feeding trough> |dab zaub<t:a trough for putting
vegetable greens in> }}
*** References
- [pages=28-9]
References:
[1]. [dab]
[2]. [pos=n.³] ; _apud_ [R:Etymonline]
[3]. [date=2000 May 27]
[4]. Skeat, W. W. (2013). An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. United States: Dover Publications, p. 152
[5]. [pages=260; 273]
** Yola
*** Etymology
Cognate with [en].
*** Pronunciation
- [yol]
*** Noun
[yol]
1. dash , slap
2. * [yol]
*** References
- [page=33]