ETYMOLOGY
from pippin, from Anglo-Norman pepin, pepine, popin and Middle French pepin (seed or pip of a fleshy fruit), possibly a derivative of a Romance base meaning ‘small’
EXAMPLE
“…and were put under the command of very valiant tailors and man-milliners, who, though on ordinary occasions the meekest, pippin-hearted little men in the world, were very devils at parades and court-martials, when they had cocked hats on their heads, and swords by their sides…”
From: A History of New York,
From the Beginning of the World to the end of the Dutch Dynasty
By Washington Irving, 1809
Lexicophilia 