What is the etymology of hop in the sense of dance
The Online Etymology Dictionary also says, under (v.1):
Old English hoppian "to spring, leap; to dance; to limp," from Proto-Germanic *hupnojan (source also of Old Norse hoppa "hop, skip," Dutch huppen, German hüpfen "to hop").
And, under (n.3):
Slang sense of "informal dancing party" is from 1731 (defined by Johnson as "a place where meaner people dance").
Also confirmed by the American Heritage Dictionary:
- Informal A dance or dance party.
[Middle English hoppen, from Old English hoppian.]
As these definitions of the word hop meaning dance go back to the 18th century, Old English and maybe even Proto-Germanic, it would suggest that the Milwaukee/hops story is an example of folk etymology.
Similarly, specific types of dances (Lindy Hop or a Sock Hop) were just derived from the pre-existing word for a dance.
Note that the Only Etymology dictionary also says, under dance:
"dance" words frequently are derived from words meaning "jump, leap"
Wiktionary provides the following definition for Old English hoppian:
to hop, spring, leap, dance
The OED attests to the slang or colloquial use of hop to mean a dance; a dancing-party, esp. of an informal or unceremonious kind, from 1731:
1731 Read's Weekly Jrnl. 9 Jan. — Near an hundred people of both sexes..dancing to the musick of two sorry fiddles..it was called a three-penny hop.
The event follows from the act, and the OED has hop used humorously of a leap or step in dancing from at least 1579:
1579 S. Gosson Schoole of Abuse f. 15v — He gaue dauncers great stipends for selling their hopps.
This noun, in turn, derives from the verb to hop, i.e. to spring or leap especially on one foot, which goes all the way back to Old English hoppian.
According to “An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language”;
to hop:
To dance. Hop is used in this sense, according to the account which Walsingham (1532 - 1590) gives of what Wallace said to his troops, when he had drawn them up in order of battle;
- Dicens eis patria lingua: I haif brocht you to the King, hop gif you can.
The notion of dancing is often expressed in different languages with verbs which refers to “leap/jump” as explained in the following piece by Antoly Lieberman:
For instance, Latin salire meant “dance,” while its frequentative form saltare meant “leap” (compare Engl. saltation and somersault). Some of the older Germanic verbs for “dance” were Old Engl. tumbian (still recognizable from tumble; it migrated to the Romance speaking lands, and in French it ended up as tomber “to fall”), hoppian (obviously, today’s hop), and sealtian, a borrowing of saltare.