Etymology

Most editors emend to *glopnyng (n.), but if the MS reading is maintained, two different identifications are possible, if tenuous: (1) Vant explains MS <gopnyng> as a variant spelling for <gapyng> and thus identifies it with ME gapen, comparing MED sense 3 'to stare open-mouthed'. ME gapen is usually derived from ON, cp. OIcel gapa 'to gape, open the mouth wide' (< a wk. 2 v. on PGmc *gap-; cp. MDu, MLG, MHG gaffen); see gapand. However it is unlikely that <gopnyng> could derive from the stem of ME gapen, as the supposed parallel instances of <a> ~ <o> variation he cites (loþe, gostlych) are reflexes of OE /a:/, not ME /a/ in an open syllable. (2) Alternatively, MS <gopnyng> could be compared to an ON stem *gop- as in Olcel gopi 'a vain person', Icel gopi 'little (greedy) mouth; opening; short, scanty clothes; (open) bag; hasty or careless man', gopa 'to gape open (of clothes)', Norw gop 'large or deep opening abyss', supposing a PGmc *gup- with an original sense referring to an opening, something gaping (cp. Ger dial gufel 'hollow or hole in a rock'). Gaw <gopnyng> could thus conceivably be a reflex of ME gopnen in a sense like 'to stare (open mouthed)', representing either a loan of ON gop- or an unrecorded native cognate, but this explanation is perhaps less likely given that there are no other attestations of such a word in English.

PGmc Ancestor

(1) *gap-; (2) *gup-;

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

(1) gapa ‘to gape, open the mouth wide’; (2) cp. gopi ‘a vain person'
(ONP (1) gapa (2) (vb.); (2) cp. gopi (sb.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

(1) Far gapa, Icel gapa, Norw gapa, Dan gape, Sw gapa

OE Cognate

Phonological and morphological markers

Summary category

D2

Attestation

(1) ME gapen is first attested as a simplex in the KG, and is then common and widespread from the early 14c., but no variants in <o> are attested.  Sense (3) (‘to stare open-mouthed, gaze fixedly’) is cited by MED from Chaucer and a handful of 15c. texts. (2) ME gopning (< ON gop-) would be a hapax legomenon.

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Gaw 2461

The MS reading <gopnyng> at Gaw 2461 (‘For to haf greued Gaynour and gart hir to dyʒe, / With glopnyng of þat ilke gome þat gostlych speked (2460-1)) is usually emended to *glopnyng (n.); the MS reading is only retained by Madden (glossing 'affright' purely from context) and Vant (see further Etymological Discussion).

Bibliography

(1) MED gāpen (v.) , OED gape (v.) , Dance *glopnyng, Bj. 150, de Vries gapa, Mag. gapa, Bj-L. gape, Orel *ʒapōjanan, Kroonen *gapp/bōn-, AEW ofer-gapian (p. 124); (2) de Vries gopi, Mag. gopa, Torp NnEO gop