eppes, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

eppes n.

also eppis

[Ger. etwas, something, thence Yid. eppes; like many Yid. terms eppes is capable of many uses, often ironic, and all dependent on context. It entered the sl. vocabulary via the underworld, which used it to mean low-class or worthless. Subseq. meanings have developed since]

1. something, a little.

1927		‘J.M. Hall’ Anecdota Americana I 47: He’s a business man and his rating is O. K. But he’s eppis a little meshuga.
1968		L. Rosten Joys of Yiddish 108: eppes Pronounced EP-pis, to rhyme with ‘hep miss.’ From Middle High German: eppes 1. Something; a little. 2. A somebody.

2. a somebody.

1968

see sense 1.

3. nothing.

1928		W. Winchell Your Broadway & Mine 20 Nov. [synd. col.] [A]ll concerned will get ‘eppis’ which in Jewish means ‘something’ but [...] on Broadwey it is sarcasm for ‘nothing’.
1938		A.J. Liebling Back Where I Came From (1990) 223: You know how old jockeys wind up – with eppes.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 65/2: Eppis. (Yiddish-American) Something of inconsequential value; practically nothing.