She's a pip.

[aaronsun666]

The Big Bang Theory Season 04 Episode 05

Script

Bernadette sets Leonard up with Joy. The gang are having dinner together at a restaurant.

Leonard: Bernadette tells me she knows you from self-defence classes?
Joy: Basically, a hundred different ways to rip a guy’s nuts off.
Leonard: Wouldn’t think there’d be that many.

Then Joy demonstrates one of [the] ways as to how to rip off a guy's nuts on Leonard.

Bernadette: Isn’t she a pip?

What does 'pip' mean? A hilarious person? I gathered it should be a compliment.

 

[owlman5]

You should look up "pip" in our dictionary, Aaron. Here is the relevant definition:

someone or something wonderful or amazing.

"She's a pip" sounds odd in today's English. This comment sounds like something that somebody might have said normally five or six decades ago.

 

[aaronsun666]

Got it, owlman5. Your note was very helpful.

This definition of 'pip' wasn't incorporated in those dictionaries I frequently used, such as 'Longman' 'Oxford' 'Cambridge' and some online dictionaries such as 'vocabulary.com' 'American Heritage'.
(WR dictionary does not meet my needs most of the time, the problem being it doesn't include any examples to demonstrate how a word is used. Good for native speakers, bad for learners.)

 

[Beryl from Northallerton]

"She's a pip" sounds odd in today's English. This comment sounds like something that somebody might have said normally five or six decades ago.

I imagine it was being used "ironically". Would such a usage constitute humour in AE?

 

[owlman5]

Hi, Beryl.

I imagine it was being used "ironically". Would such a usage constitute humour in AE?

You hit the nail on the head. It's not very funny, but this is a little joke. I imagine that many people in the show's target audience have never heard this word used anywhere. Their parents, who are probably somewhere around my age, will be vaguely familiar with the word because they remember Gladys Knight and the Pips.

 

[Cowrie]

Hi!
Isn’t Hershey’s currently using the word to refer to each small square section of their candy bar in an ad? If so, is that meant to be funny, too? It at least sounds like “a segment” and “something awesome” at the same time?

 

[owlman5]

Hi, Cowrie.

I've never heard "pip" with that meaning before. Hershey advertises pretty aggressively, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that somebody in Hershey's marketing department decided to use "pip" for "little pieces of chocolate that you break off a larger bar of chocolate."

Maybe people really do use that word with that meaning. If they do, I haven't heard them.

 

[bennymix]

It sounds very British; but the characters in the series are often trying to be intellectual and/or affected in their speech. A pip is a prize, something of much value; here, a person.

 

[Cowrie]

Thank you for your response, owlman5!

 

[bennymix]

pip - Facebook {Hershey's site}

https://www.facebook.com/HERSHEYS/posts/10150214419968304

Ever wonder what the breakable sections of the HERSHEY'S Milk Chocolate bar are called? Each one is a "pip." Share a pip with your friends today!

 

[Beryl from Northallerton]

It sounds very British [...]

Not to me, it doesn't.

 

[Myridon]

Hi!
Isn’t Hershey’s currently using the word to refer to each small square section of their candy bar in an ad? If so, is that meant to be funny, too? It at least sounds like “a segment” and “something awesome” at the same time?

Pip has another meaning which refers to small squares/diamonds on soldiers uniforms which are somewhat similar to the small embossed squares of chocolate.
See picture here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Army_officer_rank_insignia

 

[Sparky Malarky]

Calling someone a "pip" is rather unusual, but I think that was probably why the writers chose that word (if they thought much about it at all). All of the characters on Big Bang Theory are kind of misfits and are likely to lapse into unusual vocabulary, and Bernadette is highly educated.

No one knows exactly what a pip is, and no one know exactly what to make of Joy. Bernadette implies that Joy is delightfully funny, but Leonard actually finds her obnoxious (as does the audience). Had Bernadette said "She's a delight" Leonard would probably disagree. Had Bernadette said "She's a clown" Leonard might be better forewarned. He tries to like Joy, because Bernadette endorses her, but he's clearly having a miserable time.

 

[Cowrie]

Ever wonder what the breakable sections of the HERSHEY'S Milk Chocolate bar are called? Each one is a "pip." Share a pip with your friends today!

Pip has another meaning which refers to small squares/diamonds on soldiers uniforms which are somewhat similar to the small embossed squares of chocolate.

Ohh! So it’s like a new usage of the word, devised by Hershey’s based on one of the meanings of the word. Thank you so much, bennymix and Myridon!

I find a lot of different meanings of the word “pip” by searching in the box above in the forum, and I feel the meaning “any of the segments marking the surface of a pineapple” may fit as well in terms of the embossed squares of chocolate. I wonder this usage is also dated….

…And, I now realize that I’m against many of Forum Rules, off-topic and all, unintentionally though (I was so excited when I first read this thread).
I leave before I feel like committing a crime here.

 

[JamesM]

pip - Facebook {Hershey's site}

https://www.facebook.com/HERSHEYS/posts/10150214419968304

I think this is a recent invention on the part of Hershey's advertising department. I have never heard anyone in real life call a square of chocolate from a Hershey's bar a "pip". Perhaps it's the technical term used in Hershey's factories but it's not a mainstream word. I would use piece or square (even though I know they're rectangular, not square ).

To me, a person who is a "pip" is energetic and outgoing, "spunky". It's a term of admiration, and it's very old. As others have said, Big Bang Theory script writers use odd and arcane words all the time to emphasize the unusual characters.

 

[ain'ttranslationfun?]

It means "She's (quite) a piece of work.", which, like "She's a pip." (or any term!) can be interpreted in different ways according to context. But The Pips, Gladys Knight's backup singers, were men... And if "a pip" is a "breakable [section] of the Hershey's chocolate bar", you'd have to be pretty stingy to 'share' just one of them with a friend !

 

[txtulip]

On the TV show "All in the Family", Archie would frequently tell Edith, "Edith, you're a pip, you know it?" It was when she was having a dingy moment. lol

 

[Loob]

Welcome to the forums, txtulip

What's a 'dingy moment'? And how do you pronounce dingy in 'dingy moment'?

 

[Trochfa]

I've never heard "pip" used, but I instantly took it to mean that she was a "hoot". [Nobody really says that over here unless they're joking.]

e.g. "Oh Anne, you really are a hoot!". [It sounds very 1930s].
be a hoot Meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary

I've also known it to mean "the life and soul of the party", not just "funny".

 

[bennymix]

To me, a pip is something prized, a fine example of something. Archie would be using it sarcastically.

 

[You little ripper!]

According to the Urban Dictionary:

(1) A pain in the ass.
(2) A real character.
(3) Someone who tends to be difficult, but still likeable.

 

[bennymix]

Archie predates the Urban Dictionary, hence Merriam Webster:

: one extraordinary of its kind

 

[You little ripper!]

Archie predates the Urban Dictionary, hence Merriam Webster:

: one extraordinary of its kind

I was more interested in the meaning of the word in the OP.

 

[Trochfa]

To me, a pip is something prized, a fine example of something. Archie would be using it sarcastically.

I completely agree.

It makes sense as a compliment, as bennymix has also explained, in the OP.

 

[You little ripper!]

It makes sense as a compliment, as bennymix has also explained, in the OP.

"A real character", a compliment, could also work in the OP.

 

[Trochfa]

Yes definitely.