the.com/prop
An object that pretends to matter but mostly exists to be put down later.
means An object used to support something, demonstrate a point, or give an actor something to hold while pretending to be someone else — and, in slang, a nod of respect given where it's due.
from Shortened from 'property,' as theater folk called the movable items used onstage — a sword, a teacup, a skull to brood over. The clipping dates to 19th-century stage slang. The 'proper respect' sense ('give props') is unrelated in feeling but tangled in root: it likely comes from 'proper recognition' shortened the same blunt way English loves to shorten things.
- stage origin
- short for property, theater jargon since the 1800s
- aviation sense
- propeller got clipped the same lazy way
- slang use
- to prop someone is to give deserved respect
- continuity nightmare
- same prop must match shot after shot