chopfallen

chopfallen [ˈtʃɒpˌfɔlən] a. Also chapfallen

1.) With the lower jaw fallen, hanging down, or shrunk; fig., dejected, dispirited, miserable, crest-fallen (O.E.D. 2nd Ed.).

Etymology: chop + fallen. Chop is another form of chap, jawbone; and the more usual one in several senses. Choip in The Flyting of Dumbar and Kennedie (1505) is the earliest trace of the word in any form: with this exception the chap form is evidenced earlier. The variation may have arisen from association with the other words in which chap varies with chop. Fallen is the past participle of fall, from Middle English fallen, from Old English feallan.

"                                          Hounds
Twitch in their sleep, or try their best to run,
Give tongue, and sniff the air, as if they caught
Scent of their quarry. If you wake them up,
They'll chase the phantom of the stag they view
Bounding away from them, until at last
They come to learn the error of their ways,
Returning gloomy to their wiser selves
Chopfallen in their disillusionment."
(The De Rerum Natura of Titus Lucretius Carus, Rolfe Humphries (trans.), 1968)

(Fireside Dreams, Julian Alden Weir, 1887)_____________________________________________________

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