what's a bap

[Jonathon GREEN]

My money's on a figurative use of the SE bap, which was originally Scottish and undoubtedly crossed the Irish sea. A bap is a round and invariably soft roll without any sort of hard crust. I have eaten a number and they were usually sliced open and filled. They are, in my experience, a northern English (and of course Scottish and Irish) product. Hence the plural baps: breasts, which is slang. Presumably Beckett's use was emphasising the fig. softness (feebleness, stupidity) of his human target. I am ignorant of AE's sexual predelictions, but much as one yearns for predates, it can be assumed that this was not the modern acronyum - Bisexual And Proud.

JG
Chambers Dict. of Slang

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