- clipper (n.)
- late 14c., "a sheepshearer;" early 15c., "a barber;" c.1300 as a surname; from Middle English clippen "shorten" (see clip (v.1)). The type of fast sailing ship so called from 1823 (in Cooper's "The Pilot"), probably from clip (v.1) in sense of "to move or run rapidly," perhaps influenced by Middle Dutch klepper "swift horse," echoic (Clipper appears as the name of a race horse in 1831). Perhaps originally simply "fast ship," regardless of type:
Well, you know, the Go-along-Gee was one o' your flash Irish cruisers -- the first o' your fir-built frigates -- and a clipper she was! Give her a foot o' the sheet, and she'd go like a witch--but somehow o'nother, she'd bag on a bowline to leeward. ["Naval Sketch-Book," by "An officer of rank," London, 1826]
The early association of the ships was with Baltimore, Maryland. In late 18c., the word principally meant "one who cuts off the edges of coins" for the precious metal.