Nancy Friedman is one of my favorite writers on language, so I was over the moon to read her write-up of my book Gobsmacked! I can’t imagine a better appreciation of what I’ve tried to do with the blog and the book.
Her piece also reminded me that, some months back, Nancy had suggested I write about “pap”–a noun for paparazzi photographers, and a verb for what they do, as in these examples she provided.
- “The street looks I papped in Paris” (Blackbird Spyplane, a Substack written by two Oakland, California, residents)
- “I met up with my pal of over a decade, Sarah Isenberg, who got papped out the wazoo (what a horrible phrase I’ve just reified) for her extremely cute cotton frock and gingham sailor cap” (Esque, whose author lives in New York)
- “I guess Van’s slip-ons are having a moment? Morgan Stewart sporting the checkered pair sent the IG girls into a tizzy, and now Jennifer Lawrence has been papped in a black pair” (The Love List by Jess Graves, “New York by way of Atlanta”)
And she provided a screen shot of a February 2024 passage in the American ad-industry publication Adweek (which also includes the NOOB “range“).
To give a bit of history, the verb and the noun–“pap” to refer to a paparazzo, which is the singular of paparazzi–both popped up in the U.K. in the early 1990s, according to the OED, which has these early citations for the verb:
- “The Queen, it has been said, doesn’t like being ‘papped’ on her own estate… Certain over-zealous royal flunkeys were sounding off about pictures of HM taking her corgis for a walk in the snow at Windsor Castle.” Daily Mirror, 1991
- “Night is a good time for ‘papping’ celebrities and I’m often called from my bed to follow up a tip-off.” Independent, 1994.
The dictionary has an American use of the noun from the New York Daily News in 1998: “The duo recently noshed at Kobe Club, giving paps ample opportunity to get some shots of them.”
As Nancy’s examples suggest, the verb is pretty common here now. I can offer one example of the noun, from an episode of the sitcom Abbott Elementary last season. Bradley Cooper (as himself) has just unexpectedly shown up at the eponymous primary school, and one of the teachers, busy on his phone, defensively says: “I’m just texting the other teachers, not the paps.”
notoneoffbritishisms.com 
Yikes! Yet another reminder of just how unhip I am: I think this is the first time I’ve seen this verb. I don’t follow popular culture anymore, but, still…
Same here. I only know ‘pap’ as a bread and milk mixture. I was very surprised it was considered a new word in America!
This is the first time I have heard the word. It sounds like something only journalists would say.
Pap to me has always meant poor or low quality reading material. If it television, my father would use the word drivel!
In the south of England I had always understood ‘pap’ to be baby food.
Since Nancy brought up “logical punctuation”*, and you mentioned in the book how you think the divide with respect to American writing will be along formal/informal use, I’ve noticed another trend emerging (when not bound by a particular style guide): Writing targeted towards Americans and/or the author wants to indicate they’re American vs. writing targeted towards an international audience and/or the author does not want their (American) nationality immediately apparent (with the former going for the traditional American style and the latter going for the more internationally preferred logical style).
Here’s a blogger (describing the best ways to handle various issues when writing to an international audience) whose recommended punctuation-with-quotes style follows my hypothesis.
The cookie warning we get when visiting websites is a common example (since that originated as an EU directive): More often than not, when a period or comma follows “Accept All Cookies” (with the quotes) I’ve seen it outside.
*Yes, I’m a “logicist” despite being American (a word I coined myself to describe those who prefer the logical/British style to the typesetters’/American style). I also decided to post here rather than under the original Logical Punctuation post since I thought you’d be more likely to see my comment here.
I’ve never noticed this pap-for-paparazzi usage. I’ve upvoted Robin’s ‘south of England…pap = baby food’ (tasteless mush, etc) – As the in-laws used it (Surrey); but I’ve never heard it in the Midlands.
I’ve no idea how regionally restricted the word ‘pap’ to mean ‘baby food’ is and I don’t think I’ve ever said it myself (I’m from the West Midlands) but I’m certainly familiar with its meaning and it wouldn’t sound jarring if I did hear it locally. ‘Pap’ meaning ‘paparazzi’ or ‘to take pictures of celebrities’ is very familiar though, I’m surprised so many here haven’t heard of it tbh.