bebop

From nonsense syllables used in scat singing, 1940s.

This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbiːbɒp/

bebop (uncountable)

1. (music) An early form of modern jazz played by small groups and featuring driving rhythms and complex, often dissonant harmonies.

bebop (third-person singular simple present bebops, present participle bebopping, simple past and past participle bebopped)

1. (intransitive) To participate in bebop jazz, such as by dancing in a way associated with the genre.
   • 1988 September 2, Bill Wyman, “Terms of interment: retrospecting the Ramones and the Clash”, in Chicago Reader‎:

     Six months into their career, the Clash already showed themselves the equal of any rock band that had come before them, simply by assaulting the last frontier of rock mythology: the notion that the rock audience, like some sort of bebopping proletariat, was a receptacle of goodness and hope, and that rock 'n' roll offered redemption.

   • 2007 November 26, Brooks Barnes, “Laugh Lines in the Hollywood Strike”, in New York Times‎:

     “The studios think we are having a horrible time out here,” said Richard Potter, a screenwriter who made “Strike Dancing,” a YouTube video showing pickets bebopping in formation to “Play That Funky Music.”

2. (intransitive, usually with a directional preposition) To walk in an easygoing, carefree manner.
   • 1986, Steve Estes, Called to Die: The Story of American Linguist Chet Bitterman, Slain by Terrorists, Zondervan Publishing Company (→ISBN)

     Typically one could spot Chet bebopping down the sidewalk in an Amish hat, or hunched over a cafeteria table discussing Calvinism or the Vietnam war.

   • 2001, Patsy Clairmont, The Best Devotions of Patsy Clairmont, Zondervan Publishing Company (→ISBN)

     I can't even say it was the people who board and casually whack off the top of your head with their slung-over-the-shoulder carry-ons as they obliviously bebop down the aisle to locate their seats.

   • 2013, Beth Kendrick, The Week Before the Wedding, Penguin (→ISBN)

     Summer bebopped over, holding a cup of spiked punch in each hand.

• bebopper

• bebop on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

bebop

1. bebop

bebop m (uncountable)

1. bebop