Give someone the pip/give or get the pip

This expression is usually in the form of someone or other giving one the pip, which means that the person in question is very annoying or irritating. In this sense, the expression dates from about the mid-19th century, but derives from a far earlier meaning of pip that dates back to The Middle Ages. Pip was and still is an old word for a disease that makes poultry lethargic and depressed. By the 14th century, it was applied to people who displayed the same symptoms and passed them on to others. Lethargic people are generally irritating. Thus, one could give or get the pip, which either way is most annoying and so the current meaning gradually evolved. The expression has nothing whatsoever to do with pip as in a fruit pip.