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Medieval · insult · noun

Japer

JAY-per /ˈdʒeɪpər/pronunciation reconstructed — no period source gives it

First recorded1362

At first a trickster, deceiver or impostor; soon also one who japes — a joker, buffoon or professional jester. Medieval moralists counted 'japers' as sinners who made people laugh at idle mockery. Obsolete after the 1500s, then revived in the 1800s for a jester.

Where it was first recorded

William Langland, Piers Plowman (A-text), Prologue, line 35 — the earliest citation in the first edition of the OED (NED, vol. V, 1901)

Also spelled: iaper, iapere

In its own time

After this comth the sinne of Iaperes, that been the develes apes; for they maken folk to laughe at hir Iaperie,
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, The Parson's Tale, Group I, line 651 (Skeat's line numbering), c. 1386 (the OED's conventional date for the Canterbury Tales); ed. W. W. Skeat, Chaucer's Works vol. 4 — Skeat prints 'I' for the letter we write as 'J' · read it

Today

Modern exampleThe office japer hid a rubber duck in every drawer before the board meeting.

Harmless — a light, old-fashioned word for a joker or prankster.

Its parent verb 'jape' took on a slang sexual sense in the mid-1400s and fell out of polite use for centuries (Etymonline); 'japer' itself means trickster or jester, and the revived modern use is innocent.

Questions

What does japer mean?

At first a trickster, deceiver or impostor; soon also one who japes — a joker, buffoon or professional jester. Medieval moralists counted 'japers' as sinners who made people laugh at idle mockery. Obsolete after the 1500s, then revived in the 1800s for a jester.

When was japer first used?

It is first recorded 1362 — William Langland, Piers Plowman (A-text), Prologue, line 35 — the earliest citation in the first edition of the OED (NED, vol. V, 1901).

Can you still use japer today?

Harmless — a light, old-fashioned word for a joker or prankster.

Sources

  1. A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, vol. V part 2 (I–K), 1901 — 'Japer' — Clarendon Press (via Internet Archive scan)
  2. japer — Merriam-Webster
  3. jape — Etymonline (Online Etymology Dictionary)
  4. japer — Wiktionary
  5. Chaucer's Works, vol. 4: The Canterbury Tales (ed. Skeat) — Project Gutenberg

Checked 2026-09-30 · verdict: rare — genuine, but marked rare, obsolete or archaic, or seldom recorded, in the dictionaries listed above

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