Choppy means rough with short broken waves. A choppy sea, choppy water, it turned choppy.
The shortness is what makes it uncomfortable — long swells lift a boat, choppy water slams into it, and a wind against the tide is the usual cause. Applied to writing or film, choppy means broken up and hard to follow.
1adjectivechoppyRough with short broken waves.
“The sea was choppy, and several passengers felt sick on the ferry.”
choppy is a quality of water.
Middle English
choppen
English
chop
English, today
choppy
Built from
From chop + -y. chop comes from Middle English choppen, chappen (“to chop”), of unknown origin, possibly imitative of the sound (cf. tjoff), or a variant of chap (“to become cracked”). Cognate with Scots chap (“to chop”). Compare also stq kappe, kapje (“to hack; chop; lop off”), Dutch kappen (“to chop, cut, hew”), German Low German kappen (“to cut off; clip”), German kappen (“to cut; clip”), German dialectal chapfen, kchapfen (“to chop into small pieces”), Albanian copë (“piece, chunk”), Old English ċippian (in forċippian (“to cut off”)). Perhaps related to chip. Compare couper, κόπτω, sv,no, kappa, kabba (“to chop/cut (off)”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA