From Middle High German tüpfen, tupfen (“to dip, to moisten”), from Old High German tuphen (“to dip, to moisten”), from Proto-Germanic *dupjaną; see *daupijaną (“to dip”).
Cognate with English dip. The semantic development is due to association with Middle High German stuphen (“to poke”) and a dialectal (Central German) merger with unrelated tippen (“to tap”).
tupfen (weak, third-person singular present tupft, past tense tupfte, past participle getupft, auxiliary haben)
| infinitive | tupfen | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| present participle | tupfend | ||||
| past participle | getupft | ||||
| auxiliary | haben | ||||
| indicative | subjunctive | ||||
| singular | plural | singular | plural | ||
| present | ich tupfe | wir tupfen | i | ich tupfe | wir tupfen |
| du tupfst | ihr tupft | du tupfest | ihr tupfet | ||
| er tupft | sie tupfen | er tupfe | sie tupfen | ||
| preterite | ich tupfte | wir tupften | ii | ich tupfte1 | wir tupften1 |
| du tupftest | ihr tupftet | du tupftest1 | ihr tupftet1 | ||
| er tupfte | sie tupften | er tupfte1 | sie tupften1 | ||
| imperative | tupf (du) tupfe (du) |
tupft (ihr) | |||
1Rare except in very formal contexts; alternative in würde normally preferred.