taper

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈteɪpə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈteɪpɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪpə(ɹ)
• Homophone: tapir

Etymology 1

From Middle English taper, from Old English tapor (“taper, candle, wick of a lamp”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Latin papyrus (“papyrus", used in Mediaeval times to mean "wick of a candle”). If so, it is a doublet of papyrus and paper. Alternatively, of Celtic origin related to Irish tapar (“taper”), Welsh tampr (“a taper, torch”); further compare Sanskrit तपती (tápati, “(it) warms, gives out heat, is hot; (it) heats”). More at tepid.

Noun

taper (plural tapers)

2. A slender wax candle.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 311, line 157:

     Strike on the Tinder, hoa: / Giue me a Taper: […]

   • 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 376, column 2:

     Take not away the Taper, leaue it burning:

   • 1813 August 13, Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Isaac McPherson:

     He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.

   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIX, in Francesca Carrara. , volume III, London: Richard Bentley, , (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 160:

     The red glare of the tapers flung a strange unnatural hue on the painted windows of the little Gothic chapel, where none slept save the noble of name, and the high of blood—purple and crimson, the colours mingled together in fantastic combinations, till the rainbow-hued figures seemed to move with supernatural life.

   • 1913, Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Change:

     Love used to carry a bow, you know,
     But now he carries a taper;
     It is either a length of wax aglow,
     Or a twist of lighted paper.

3. (by extension) A small light.
4. A tapering form; gradual diminution of thickness and/or cross section in an elongated object.

   the taper of a spire

   The legs of the table had a slight taper to them.

   • 2005, Michael Ellis, Apollo Rises, page 15:

     Her hair hangs over her ears and flows to a taper at the back of her neck where it is held in place with a wide and circular black clasp.

5. A thin stick used for lighting candles, either a wax-coated wick or a slow-burning wooden rod.
6. A cone-shaped item for stretching the hole for an ear gauge (piercing).
7. Gradual reduction over time.

   a drug taper

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

taper (third-person singular simple present tapers, present participle tapering, simple past and past participle tapered)

1. (transitive) To make thinner or narrower at one end.
   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 3”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     Though true cylinders without — within, the villainous green goggling glasses deceitfully tapered downwards to a cheating bottom.

2. (intransitive) To become thinner or narrower at one end.
3. (transitive, intransitive) To diminish gradually.
   • 2022 February 11, Anders Sørensen, Karsten Juhl Jørgensen, Klaus Munkholm, “Clinical practice guideline recommendations on tapering and discontinuing antidepressants for depression: a systematic review”, in Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology‎, volume 12, →DOI:

     Current major clinical practice guidelines provide little support for clinicians wishing to help patients discontinue or taper antidepressants in terms of mitigating and managing withdrawal symptoms.

4. (intransitive) (of a central bank) To tighten monetary policy.

Synonyms

• narrow

Derived terms

• taper off

Translations

Adjective

taper

1. Tapered; narrowing to a point.

Etymology 2

tape +‎ -er

Noun

taper (plural tapers)

1. (weaving) One who operates a tape machine.
2. Someone who works with tape or tapes.

Translations

Anagrams

• Peart, Petra, apert, apter, parte, pater, peart, petar, petra, prate, preta, reapt, repat, retap, trape, treap

Danish

Verb

taper

1. present of tape

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French taper, from Old French tapper, taper (“to tap”), of Germanic origin, from Frankish *tappōn, *dabbōn (“to strike”) or from Middle Low German tappen, tapen (“to tap, rap, strike”); both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *dab- (“to strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰebʰ- (“to beat, strike, stun, be speechless”). Related to German tappen (“to grope, fumble”), Dutch deppen (“to dab”), Icelandic tappa, tapsa, tæpta (“to tap”). Related to dab.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ta.pe/

• Audio (France, Paris)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -e
• Homophones: tapai, tapé, tapée, tapées, tapés, tapez

Verb

taper

1. (transitive) to slap, knock, beat
2. (transitive) to type (use a keyboard or typewriter)
3. (transitive with sur) to hit, beat, rap
4. (intransitive) to beat down (of the sun); to go to one's head (of wine etc.)
5. (intransitive, slang) to stink, pong, reek
6. (reflexive, slang) to put away (a meal etc.)

   Je me suis tapé un bon petit hamburger hier soir.

   I put away a good, tiny hamburger last night.

7. (reflexive, vulgar, slang) to fuck (have sex)

   Il s’est tapé la fille de son patron.

   He fucked his boss' daughter.

8. (reflexive) to put up with

   J’ai dû me taper trois heures d’embouteillage pour rejoindre l’aéroport.

   I had to put up with three hours of traffic jam to get to the airport.

Conjugation

Derived terms

See also

• frapper
• cogner

Further reading

• “taper”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.
• “taper” in Dictionnaire français en ligne Larousse.

Anagrams

• parte, pâtre, prêta, tarpé

Middle English

Alternative forms

• tapre, tapyr, tapir, tapor, tapour, tapur, tapper

Etymology

From Old English tapor, possibly from Latin papȳrus (if so, a doublet of paper).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtaːpər/

Noun

taper (plural tapres)

1. taper (thin candle)

Descendants

• English: taper

References

• “tāper, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Norman

Pronunciation

• Audio (Jersey)

  (file)

Verb

taper (gerund tap'thie)

1. (Jersey, onomatopoeia) to hit, knock

Derived terms

• taper raide (“to hit hard”)

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology 1

From tape (“to lose”) +‎ -er.

Noun

taper m (definite singular taperen, indefinite plural tapere, definite plural taperne)

1. a loser

Related terms

• tapar (Nynorsk)

Verb

taper

1. present tense of tape (“to lose”)

Etymology 2

Noun

taper m

1. indefinite plural of tape

Verb

taper

1. present tense of tape (“to tape”)

References

• “taper” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “taper” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Anagrams

• paret, parte, pater, patre, Petra, prate, rapet, rapte

Norwegian Nynorsk

Verb

taper

1. present of tape (to lose)

Walloon

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ta.pe/

Verb

taper

1. to throw