Cut short or trimmed; spoken in a brief, sharp manner. Past tense of clip, meaning to cut or fasten.
From Middle English clippen, from Old Norse klippa meaning 'to cut, shear'. Originally referred to shearing sheep or cutting hair, later extended to speech patterns and general cutting actions.
The word 'clipped' beautifully captures both physical and linguistic precision - from a clipped hedge to clipped speech, it suggests efficiency and control. Interestingly, 'clipped' accents are often associated with upper-class British speech, where consonants are sharply articulated and vowels shortened.
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