LIPPEN — [Verb] To entrust or rely on someone or something. From Middle English lipnen ("to trust"), of obscure origin, possibly an alteration of Middle English litnen ("to trust"), from Old Norse hlíta ("to trust"), akin to Swedish lita ("to trust, depend, rely on"). Unlike "trust" (which is broad and unmarked) or "depend" (which leans on necessity), "lippen" is a quiet pact, a hand placed in another’s without checking first for steadiness. It is the farmer leaving the gate unlatched for a neighbor’s return, the child asleep against a parent’s shoulder, the way an old dog still turns its head at the sound of a voice it has known for years—a word for the kind of faith that forgets it is faith at all.