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irpe or irp - n., (obs., rare) a fantastic grimace or contortion of the body (?).
A nonce word used by Ben Jonson in the courtly masque Cynthia's Revels: "From Spanish shrugs, French faces, smirks, irpes, and all affected humours." The meaning is conjectural, but reasonable from the context. Whether he coined it (and from where) or was using court slang of the moment, is entirely uncertain. Frankly, this isn't a pretty good word but merely an okay one, and I'm running it only because of the phrase "smirks, irpes, and all affected humours."
---L.
A nonce word used by Ben Jonson in the courtly masque Cynthia's Revels: "From Spanish shrugs, French faces, smirks, irpes, and all affected humours." The meaning is conjectural, but reasonable from the context. Whether he coined it (and from where) or was using court slang of the moment, is entirely uncertain. Frankly, this isn't a pretty good word but merely an okay one, and I'm running it only because of the phrase "smirks, irpes, and all affected humours."
---L.
