_Peep of Day._--Jacob Grimm, in his _Deutsche Mythologie_, p. 428., ed.
1., remarks that the ideas of light and sound are sometimes confounded;
and in support of his observation he quotes passages of Danish and
German poets in which the sun and moon are said to _pipe_ (pfeifen). In
further illustration of this usage, he also cites the words "the sun
began to peep," from a Scotch ballad in Scott's _Border Minstrelsy_,
vol. ii. p. 430. In p. 431. he explains the words "par son l'aube,"
which occur in old French poets, by "per sonitum auroræ;" and compares
the English expression, "the peep of day."
The Latin _pipio_ or _pipo_, whence the Italian _pipare_, and the French
_pépier_, is the ultimate origin of the verb _to peep_; which, in old
English, bore the sense of chirping, and is so used in the authorised
version of Isaiah, viii. 19., x. 14. Halliwell, in his _Archaic
Dictionary_, explains "peep" as "a flock of chickens," but cites no
example. _To peep_, however, in the sense of taking a rapid look at
anything through a small aperture, is an old use of the word, as is
proved by the expression _Peeping_ Tom of Coventry. As so used, it
corresponds with the German _gucken_. Mr. Richardson remarks that this
meaning was probably suggested by the young chick looking out of the
half-broken shell. It is quite certain that the "peep of day" has
nothing to do with sound; but expresses the first appearance of the sun,
as he just looks over the eastern hills.