taper

See also: táper and tåper

English

WOTD – 2 May 2007

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”), or of Celtic origin related to Irish tapar (“taper”), Welsh tampr (“a taper, torch”). Compare Sanskrit तपती (tápati, “(it) warms, gives out heat; to be hot; to heat”). More at tepid.

Noun

taper (plural tapers)

1. A slender wax candle; a small lighted wax candle
   • ~1603, William Shakespeare, Othello, Act I, scene I, line 157:

     strike on the tinder, ho!/ Give me a taper.

   • 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.

2. (by extension) a small light.
3. 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.

4. A thin stick used for lighting candles, either a wax-coated wick or a slow-burning wooden rod.

Derived terms

• taperwise

Translations

slender wax candle

• Danish: kærte c, vokslys n
• Dutch: kaars (nl)
• French: chandelle (fr) f
• German: dünne Wachskerze f, Kerze (de) f, Leuchterkerze f
• Greek: λεπτό κερί n (leptó kerí)

• Hungarian: vékony gyertya
• Italian: smusso (it) m, stoppino (it) m
• Navajo: akʼahkǫʼ níyizígíí
• Russian: то́нкая све́чка f (tónkaja svéčka), све́чка (ru) f (svéčka)
• Swedish: vaxljus (sv) n

tapering form

• Dutch: versmalling
• Finnish: kartio (fi)
• French: conicité (fr) f, effilage (fr) m
• German: Verjüngung f, Kegel (de) m, Abschrägung f

• Greek: απολέπτυνση f (apoléptynsi), κωνικότητα (el) f (konikótita)
• Italian: smusso (it) m, conicità f, rastrematura (it) f, rastremazione (it) f
• Portuguese: conicidade f, afunilamento m
• Russian: суже́ние (ru) n (sužénije)

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, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 3

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

2. (intransitive) To diminish gradually.

Synonyms

• narrow

Derived terms

• taper off

Translations

to make thinner or narrower at one end

• Dutch: versmallen (nl)
• Finnish: suipentaa
• French: rétrécir (fr)
• German: verschmälern, verjüngen (de), zuspitzen (de), abschrägen, abdrehen (de), anschrägen
• Greek: λεπτύνω (el) (leptýno)
• Italian: affusolare (it), affilare (it), smussare (it)

• Maori: kōekoeko
• Russian: заостря́ть (ru) impf (zaostrjátʹ), заостри́ть (ru) pf (zaostrítʹ)
• Spanish: adelgazar (es)
• Swedish: avsmalna

to become thinner or narrower at one end

• Hungarian: vékonyodik (hu), elvékonyodik (hu), keskenyedik, szűkül (hu), csúcsosodik (hu)

to diminish gradually

• Finnish: suipentua, suipeta, souketa
• German: abnehmen (de), sich verjüngen, sich verengen, sich zuspitzen, spitz zulaufen
• Greek: απολεπτύνομαι (apoleptýnomai), αποξύνομαι (apoxýnomai)
• Hungarian: fogyatkozik (hu), csökken (hu), halványul (hu), elhalványul (hu)

• Italian: assottigliare (it)
• Maori: kāwetoweto, hōiki
• Russian: сужа́ться (ru) impf (sužátʹsja), утонча́ться (ru) impf (utončátʹsja)
• Spanish: estrecharse (es)
• Swedish: avklinga

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

• German: ^{(please verify)} verjüngen (de)
• Russian: ^{(please verify)} сужа́ть (ru) impf (sužátʹ), ^{(please verify)} утонча́ть (ru) impf (utončátʹ)

• Spanish: ^{(please verify)} estrechar (es)
• Swedish: ^{(please verify)} förtunna

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.

Anagrams

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

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Danish

Verb

taper

1. present of tape

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French

Etymology

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.

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

   Il s'est tapé la fille de son patron.

Conjugation

Conjugation of taper (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	taper
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	tapant /ta.pɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		tapé /ta.pe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	tape /tap/	tapes /tap/	tape /tap/	tapons /ta.pɔ̃/	tapez /ta.pe/	tapent /tap/
	imperfect	tapais /ta.pɛ/	tapais /ta.pɛ/	tapait /ta.pɛ/	tapions /ta.pjɔ̃/	tapiez /ta.pje/	tapaient /ta.pɛ/
	past historic2	tapai /ta.pe/	tapas /ta.pa/	tapa /ta.pa/	tapâmes /ta.pam/	tapâtes /ta.pat/	tapèrent /ta.pɛʁ/
	future	taperai /ta.pʁe/	taperas /ta.pʁa/	tapera /ta.pʁa/	taperons /ta.pʁɔ̃/	taperez /ta.pʁe/	taperont /ta.pʁɔ̃/
	conditional	taperais /ta.pʁɛ/	taperais /ta.pʁɛ/	taperait /ta.pʁɛ/	taperions /ta.pə.ʁjɔ̃/	taperiez /ta.pə.ʁje/	taperaient /ta.pʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	tape /tap/	tapes /tap/	tape /tap/	tapions /ta.pjɔ̃/	tapiez /ta.pje/	tapent /tap/
	imperfect2	tapasse /ta.pas/	tapasses /ta.pas/	tapât /ta.pa/	tapassions /ta.pa.sjɔ̃/	tapassiez /ta.pa.sje/	tapassent /ta.pas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	tape /tap/	—	tapons /ta.pɔ̃/	tapez /ta.pe/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is only usable with preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, the past historic, past anterior, imperfect subjunctive and pluperfect subjunctive tenses may be found to have been replaced with the indicative present perfect, indicative pluperfect, present subjunctive and past subjunctive tenses respectively (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

Derived terms

• tapable
• tape-à-l'œil
• tapeur

• tapeuse
• tapure

See also

• frapper
• cogner

Further reading

• “taper” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• parte, pâtre, prêta, tarpé

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Norman

Pronunciation

• Audio (Jersey)

  (file)

Verb

taper (gerund tap'thie)

1. (Jersey, onomatopoeia) to hit, knock

Derived terms

• taper raide (“to hit hard”)

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Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

taper

1. a loser

Inflection

    Declension of taper in Bokmål

		Genitive
Indefinite singular	taper	tapers
Definite singular	taperen	taperens
Indefinite plural	tapere	taperes
Definite plural	taperne	tapernes

Related terms

• tapar (Nynorsk)

Noun

taper

1. indefinite plural of tape

Verb

taper

1. present of tape (to lose)
2. (archaic) present of tape (to tape)

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Norwegian Nynorsk

Verb

taper

1. present of tape (to lose)

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Walloon

Etymology

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

Verb

taper

1. to throw