sparadrap

English

Etymology

French sparadrap.

Noun

sparadrap (plural sparadraps)

1. (obsolete) A cerecloth.
2. (medicine, obsolete) Any adhesive plaster.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “sparadrap”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin sparadrapum of obscure origins; the second part of the term is drap and the first could be Old French esparer (“cover”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spa.ʁa.dʁa/

Noun

sparadrap m (plural sparadraps)

1. band-aid, plaster, bandage

   Synonym: pansement

   • 1862, Victor Hugo, Les Misérables:

     Les pansements étaient compliqués et difficiles, la fixation des appareils et des linges par le sparadrap n’ayant pas encore été imaginée à cette époque.

     Dressing the wound was complicated and difficult, the application of apparatus and linen as the bandage having not yet been conceived of by that time.

2. surgical tape, medical tape

Descendants

• → Catalan: esparadrap

Further reading

• “sparadrap”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.