Date
Meaning & History
Borrowing from French chiffon, from Middle French chiffe "cloth, old rag" from Old French chipe "rag", from Middle English chip, chippe "chip, shard, fragment" from Old English ċipp "chip, splinter, beam" from Proto-Germanic kippaz, kipaz (“log, beam”). Akin to Old Saxon kip "beam, post", Old High German kipfa "axle-rod, stave".