Forms: 4 culp, 7 kilpe, 7– kelp. [ME. culp or culpe (ü), of unknown origin. Of this the normal mod. repr. would be kilp; kelp is app. a dialect variation: cf. melt and milt sb.]
1. A collective name for large seaweeds (chiefly Fucaceæ and Laminariaceæ) which are burnt for the sake of the substances found in the ashes.
Bull-head Kelp, a N. W. American species (Nereocystis Luetkeana) used by the Indians for fishing-lines.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 181. As culpes of þe see waggeþ wiþ þe water.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. XXXII. vi. 437. As for the reits Kilpe, Tangle, & such like sea-weeds, Nicander saith, they are as good as treacle.
1663. Boyle, Exp. Hist. Colours, xlix. Ann. i. (1670), 373. In making our ordinary Allom, the Workmen use the Ashes of a Sea Weed (vulgarly called Kelp) and Urine.
1791. Newte, Tour Eng. & Scot., 112. The cutting and burning of the kelp that grows on their shores.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xiv. 35. We found the tide low, and the rocks and stones covered with kelp and sea-weed.
b. spec. The giant or great kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera or Fucus giganteus) of the Pacific coast of America, the largest of seaweeds.
1834. Darwin, in Voy. ‘Adventure’ & ‘Beagle’ (1839), III. 303. There is one marine production, which from its importance is worthy of a particular history. It is the kelp or Fucus giganteus of Solander.
1898. F. T. Bullen, Cruise ‘Cachalot,’ 88. We were continually passing broad patches of kelp (fucus gigantea), whose great leaves and cable-laid stems made quite reef-like breaks in the heaving waste of the restless sea.
2. The calcined ashes of seaweed used in commerce for the sake of the carbonate of soda, iodine, and other substances which they contain; large quantities were formerly used in the manufacture of soap and glass.
1678. Phil. Trans., XII. 1054. Kelp is made of a Sea-weed, called Tangle, such as comes to London on Oysters.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, I. 9. [It] is the nitre of the antients, not unlike the soda or kelp of the moderns.
1808. Gazetteer Scotl. (ed. 2), s.v. Gigha, Much sea-weed … partly employed as a manure, and partly burned into kelp.
1862. Ansted, Channel Isl., IV. xxii. 514. The quantity of weed required to manufacture a ton of kelp averages twenty tons.
† 3. A name for the plants Salsola and Salicornia: cf. KALI 1. Obs. rare.
1712. trans. Pomet’s Hist. Drugs, I. 101. A Plant … which the Botanists call Kali … and we … Kelp.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. 306. Kelp, Salicornia.
4. attrib. and Comb., as kelp-ashes, -burner, -burning, -making, -weed, -wrack; kelp-fish, the name given to several fishes found on the Pacific coast of the United States; see also quot.; kelp-goose, -hen (see quots.); kelp-pigeon, the sheathbill, an Antarctic sea-bird; kelp raft, a mass of kelp floating on the sea.
1834. Brit. Husb., I. 420. 6 bushels of *kelp-ashes.
1895. Outing (U.S.), XXVI. 355/1. The long swells … only half broken by the *kelp belt a mile away.
1845. Selby, in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. No. 13. 161. These buildings have … been occupied … by the *kelp-burners. Ibid., 162. *Kelp-burning was carried on at Holy Island as early as the 13th century.
1880. Günther, Fishes, 533. The ‘Butter-fish,’ or *‘Kelp fish’ of the colonists of New Zealand (Coridodax pullus)…. It feeds on zoophytes, scraping them from the surface of the kelp.
1883. Coppinger, Cruise ‘Alert,’ 56. The *kelp geese (Bernicla antarctica) were paddling about with their young ones.
1899. Evans, Birds, 247. These Rails are semi-nocturnal … Ocydromus fuscus [of N. Z.] obtaining the name of *Kelp-Hen from the stretches of sea-weed that it frequents.
1884. E. Ingersoll, in Harper’s Mag., VII. 706/2. They caught gulls, and tried to make them carry *kelp lines, but all was of no avail.
1810. Edin. Rev., XVII. 146. The introduction of *kelp-making.
1886. Encycl. Brit., XXI. 782/2, note. In the Falkland Isles it is called the *‘Kelp-Pigeon.’
1897. Outing (U.S.), XXX. 259/1. We drew in toward the island … avoiding the great *kelp rafts.
1805. Naval Chron., XIV. 38. The *kelp-weed … lying upon the Shore.
1833. Sir J. E. Smith, Eng. Flora, V. 268. It [Fucus nodosus] is said in the Hebrides to be preferable to all other Fuci in the manufacturing of kelp, and passes there under the name of *kelp-wrack.
Hence Kelper, a maker of kelp. Kelping vbl. sb., the manufacture of kelp; ppl. a., that makes kelp. Kelpy a., abounding in kelp.
1808. Forsyth, Beauties Scotl., V. 100. The kelpers might employ their time between tides.
1822. G. Woodley, Scilly Isl., I. v. 119. The Islanders seldom get more, in a family, than from £7 to £10, for their labours during the kelping season.
1852. Raine, Hist. N. Durham, 146. A ridge of kelpy stone, over which it is no easy matter to pass.
1880. Emma C. Hardacre, in Scribner’s Mag., XX. 659/1. The young mother … jumped overboard and struck out through the kelpy waters for the shore.
1895. D. J. Robertson, in Longm. Mag., Nov., 33. The kelper’s year may be reckoned from mid-November. Ibid., 39. The old stories, the folk-tales of the isles, linger fragmentary among the kelping people.
