Cracked or split, especially describing skin that has become rough and broken due to cold, dryness, or weathering.
Past tense of 'chap,' from Old English ceapian meaning 'to crack' or 'to split.' The word originally described the sound of something breaking or splitting, then came to describe the condition itself.
Medieval people used 'chapt' hands and lips as a reality of winter survival—before modern moisturizers, chapped skin was so common that it became poetic shorthand for hardship and cold in literature.
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