rap [ME] The word rap, in the sense of a blow, is of Scandinavian origin and is probably like clap [OE] and flap [ME], meant to imitate the sound. Since the end of the 18th century rap has been associated with rebuke and punishment, as in the phrase a rap on the knuckles for a sharp criticism. In late 19th-century American English the word developed the further meanings of ‘a criminal charge’ and ‘a prison sentence’. If you were acquitted you were said to beat the rap. To take the rap [E20th] was to be punished or blamed, especially for something where other people were wholly or partly responsible. Performers of rap music tend to have a dangerous, bad-boy image, but the root of the term is not the ‘criminal charge’ or ‘prison’ senses but the old northern English sense ‘conversation, chat’ [L18th]. This was carried over the Atlantic, and rap in the sense ‘a talk or discussion’ is now an American use. The first reference to rap music comes in 1979.