hopper

Etymology 1

From Middle English hoppere, alteration of *hoppe (found in grashoppe (“grasshopper”)), from Old English *hoppa (“one who hops, hopper”), equivalent to hop + -er. Cognate with Dutch hopper (“hopper”), Swedish hoppare (“hopper, jumper”), Icelandic hoppari (“hopper”).

noun

1. One who or that which hops.
2. A temporary storage bin, filled from the top and emptied from the bottom, often funnel-shaped.
3. A funnel-shaped section at the top of a drainpipe used to collect water, from above, from one or more smaller drainpipes.
4. A bin or device that feeds material into a machine.
5. Various insects
   1. A grasshopper or locust, especially:
      1. The immature form of a locust.
         I went over and found the mealies and ground covered with large hoppers, about two weeks old. 1901, J. H. Stansell, “Locust Destruction”, in The Agricultural Journal and Mining Record, volume 4, page 21
   2. The larva of a cheese fly.
   3. A leafhopper.
   4. Any of various hesperiid butterflies.
6. An artificial fishing lure.
   To catch a big fish, use a hopper that jumps across the pond surface.
7. (slang) A toilet.
   The fresh-water container for the house was above the ceiling directly over the toilet. One day, I was comfortably seated on the hopper minding my own business, when a large portion of the ceiling came crashing down […] 2010, Robert Hudson, Stories of an Unusual Life, page 250
8. (music) An escapement lever in a piano.
9. (obsolete) The game of hopscotch.
10. A window with hinges at the bottom, opened by tilting vertically.
11. A hopper car.
12. (chess) A fairy chess piece which moves only by jumping over another piece.
13. A person or machine that picks hops.

Etymology 2

From Sinhalese ආප්ප (āppa).

noun

1. A Sri Lankan pancake made from a fermented batter of rice flour, coconut milk, and palm toddy or yeast.
   Hoppers come in different varieties and can be sweet or savoury, while an egg hopper has an egg in the middle added during cooking. 2010, Channa Dassanayaka, Sri Lankan Flavours, page 20