A lopper is a type of pruning tool, which works on the same basic principle as a pair of scissors – using two blades connected to handles, which close when the handles are closed, and open when the handles are opened.
Usually operated with two hands, a lopper is the largest type of manual garden cutting tool available.
‘Lopper’ or ‘pair of loppers’?
While a single pair of scissors uses the plural form ‘scissors’ a single lopper is not ‘a pair of loppers’. This is because the root of the two words is different; in traditional English, the word ‘lopper’ is itself plural.
The word ‘lopper’ comes from the verb ‘to lop’, meaning ‘to cut off’, which is also related to the archaic noun ‘a lop’, meaning ‘a period or session of branch cutting’.
