chop
In South African slang, a chop is a silly or foolish person. Friends use it as a playful tease, so "my chop" is closer to "my silly friend" than to "my mate".
By Cal Hewitt, Gen X ·
What it means
Chop is a teasing word for someone being foolish. Wikipedia's list of South African slang words defines chop (also spelled tjop) as a person who is being silly or acting like an idiot, as in "don't be a chop", and calls it a light and playful insult. South Africa Info glosses it as "fool, idiot; often used affectionately". So, a chop is a friendly dig, and the friendship is what makes it friendly. That is why "my chop" can sound like a term for a friend. Between people who already joke with each other, "you're a chop" after a small mistake is teasing, and Wikipedia says the word is most commonly used in a friendly way between associates. The word still means a silly person. If a friend locks their keys in the car and you type "classic chop", they will probably send back a skull emoji. Said about someone, or to a stranger, a teacher, a customer or a coworker, the same word is much more likely to land as a put-down, because the shared joke is missing and only the "fool" part is left. Chop is not a slur against a protected group and it is not a sexual or violent term, but it can still work as harassment when it is used to call someone stupid. At work or in formal writing, describe the action instead: "that was a careless decision" does the job without the sting.
See the quick definition in the chop dictionary entry.
How to use it
“classic chop, you locked the keys in again”
Teasing between friends about a small mistake.
“don't be a chop”
Criticism of silly behaviour, the example Wikipedia gives.
“my chop, that was so funny”
Warm and affectionate. The "my" signals that it is a joke between friends.
“he's such a chop”
About a person who is not there. It labels him as foolish and can sound dismissive.
Where it came from
Wikipedia's list of South African slang words ties the slang sense to the ordinary noun, a piece of meat such as a pork chop or lamb chop cooked on a braai. No date for the slang sense is documented, and no single coiner is documented. It reads as a South African English word that grew up in everyday speech among friends and associates.
The earliest dated record of the "idiot" sense is an Urban Dictionary entry from October 3, 2009, which defines a chop as "a person who has done something idiotic". Urban Dictionary is written by users, so the entry shows the sense was in use by then and says nothing about when anyone first said it.
The ordinary English word is far older. Collins gives it as a sixteenth-century variant of "chap", and Grose's 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue records chop as "a blow". Those senses are about cutting and striking. They are separate from the friend-teasing sense, and they do not make it violent.
No single person is credited, the origin is commonly reported.
Where it's popular
South African informal English. Elsewhere the same spelling means other things: skill in American English, eat in Nigerian and Ghanaian English.
On a global platform, a chop from a speaker whose background is unclear may be a different sense of the word, or a typo for chopped.
How it caught on
- 16th centuryCollins gives the ordinary English word chop as a sixteenth-century variant of "chap".
- 1811Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue records chop as "a blow", a different sense from the South African one.
- 1834GBH reports that the Oxford English Dictionary traces "chop chop", meaning hurry, in print to an 1834 article in the Canton (Ohio) Register.
- October 3, 2009An Urban Dictionary entry defines chop as a South African term for a person who has done something idiotic, the earliest dated record of that sense.
- Late 2024The Chopped Chin meme goes viral and spreads "chopped", meaning ugly or uncool, a separate word from the South African chop.
Test yourself
What kind of chop is it?
0/21. A South African friend texts "my chop, you forgot the tickets again". What are they doing?
2. Which sentence uses the South African sense of chop?
Related slang
More word guides
Questions people ask
Is chop a term for friend?
Between friends, yes in practice, but the word itself means a silly or foolish person. Wikipedia describes it as a light and playful insult that is most commonly used in a friendly way between associates. "My chop" is affectionate teasing, closer to "my silly friend" than to "my mate".
What does chop mean in slang?
In South African slang, chop (or tjop) means a foolish or silly person, usually said as a light insult. Other senses depend on context: "chopped" means ugly or uncool, "chops" means skill, chop in Nigerian and Ghanaian English means eat, and "chop it up" means to talk.
What is a slang term for friend?
The plain choices are friend, mate, buddy and pal. South Africa Info lists chommie ("friend, mate") and china ("friend, mate"), and describes bru as a term of affection. Chop is a tease between friends, so it is not a plain synonym for any of these.
What is chop a nickname for?
In South African use, chop is a teasing nickname between friends, close to "silly one". The affection comes from the friendship and the word keeps its "fool" meaning. Outside a friendship it is likely to be heard as an insult.
What do chops mean in slang?
Chops means skill or ability in American English, as in acting chops or musical chops, according to Dictionary.com. It is praise, which puts it at the opposite end from the South African chop.
Is chop chop a racist term?
Chop chop means hurry up, and GBH's writer calls it about the most condescending way to say it, since it was almost always said by someone powerful to someone below them. GBH reports that the Oxford English Dictionary traces it in print to an 1834 article in the Canton (Ohio) Register, and that several etymological dictionaries trace it to a pidgin English used on ships. The 1886 Hobson-Jobson links it to the Cantonese word kap, meaning make haste. At work, "please be quick" says the same thing without the talking down.
The same spelling means a pork chop, a blow in an 1811 slang dictionary, skill in American English and eat in Nigerian and Ghanaian English.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_South_African_slang_words
- https://southafrica-info.com/people/dictionary-south-african-english/amp/
- https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?page=2&term=Chop
- https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/chop
- https://words.fromoldbooks.org/Grose-VulgarTongue/c/chop.html
- https://www.dictionary.com/browse/chop
- https://www.dictionary.com/culture/slang/chopped
- https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/chopped-slang
- https://www.wgbh.org/news/2014-02-24/quick-what-are-the-origins-of-chop-chop
- https://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?pid=S2224-00392023000100002&script=sci_arttext
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