Dictionary

loper en · NOUN · etymology 1

Etymology

From lope (“to leap, to run”) + -er.

Meanings

1. One who or that which lopes; a runner; a leaper.
   • Wolves are very intelligent animals, and they are lopers and they are survivors. 2000, Marilyn Elkins, August Wilson: A Casebook:
2. A swivel placed at one end of the ropewalk, with the whirl being at the opposite end.

Forms

Relateds

interloper · landloper · geländeläufer

loper en · NOUN · etymology 2

Etymology

From American Spanish lobo (“wolf”) (/ˈloβo/), reinterpreted as or conflated with loper (“one who lopes”); compare the alternative forms which reflect other re-interpretations and conflations.

Meanings

1. (Southwestern, US, dialectal) A wolf, especially a grey or timber wolf.
   • When I was still some distance above the ford, about a dozen prairie wolves and one loper* wolf ran up from the water. They told me that there were no Indians near here or they would not be here; and they were not here long, either. [...] the big loper left on a slow gallop [...] Loper, corruption of Sp. lobo, wolf. 1905 April 22, C. Blanco, “Flanking a Wolf”, in Forest and Stream, page 314:
   • Besides the cattle company paid a bounty for each coyote, loper wolf, panther, bobcat or bear. We had to buy our own six-shooter but the company furnished ammunition free. So it can be seen why most cowboys were pretty good shots. 1936, James Shannon Buchanan, Chronicles of Oklahoma:

Forms