Origin of "clip" in "clip around the ears"

"Clip" commonly refers to a device for holding things together. One dictionary says it's "of unknown origin, first occurring in the 15th century." In such phrases as "giving him a clip around the ear", where does the word come from?

Solution 1:

Clip has been used as a noun since 1830 to mean, in the OED’s definition, ‘a smart blow, stroke’. This definition is given under the entry for clip with the core sense of a cut, originally in the context of sheep-shearing. It is perhaps a relatively short step from applying an instrument to the covering of an animal’s skin in order to remove it to applying a stick or the hand to the body of a human in order to hurt it.

Solution 2:

The OED has clip as a colloquial, transitive verb meaning "To hit smartly" since 1855 (this is sense 8 of clip v.2):

1855 ‘Q. K. P. Doesticks’ Doesticks, what he Says xii. 99, 97's engineer clipped one of 73's men with a trumpet.

1880 T. Q. Couch Gloss. Words E. Cornwall in Gloss. Cornwall 90 Klip, to strike or cuff. ‘I klipped 'en under the ear.’

Other senses under clip v.2 are to cut with scissors or shears (often to make tidy), to cut or snip a part away, to shear sheep, to figuratively cut something short, to cut words short or prounounce imperfectly, or to move wings rapidly.

These meanings aren't too far away from a clean, fast blow.

Etymologically, these senses of clip are from Middle English clipp-en, and probably from Old Norse klipp-a:

The Old Norse and Low German klippa , klippen , was probably identical with Low German klippen to make a sharp sound, cited under clip v.3, the application being transferred, as in clack , click , clank , clink , clap , from the sound to associated sharp actions; [other] senses and [another definition], show that the notion of cutting is not inseparable from the word. There may also have been onomatopoeic influence: in the utterance of clip, as of snip, there is a cut-short effect, which aptly suits the act.