tampon

Etymology

It is borrowed from French tampon.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} In French the word denoted a strip of felt or a leather-covered pad for inking an engraved or printing plate (both late 17th century), later also a wad inserted into a wound or body cavity, recorded in this sense in 1776; in Middle French it is recorded in 1388 for a stopper plugging the muzzle of a cannon.^[2] The French word is a nasalized variant of tapon (“plug, stopper”),^[2][7][8][9] formed from Old French tape (“plug, bung”),^[1][10] which is from Frankish *tappō (“stopper, plug”),^[1][9][7] from Proto-Germanic *tappô (“plug, tap”).^[1] Klein and Wiktionary compare Old High German zapfo (“stopper”) and Old English tæppa (“stopper”), so the word is related to tap, the faucet.^[9][1][7][8] The earlier tampion, a plug for the muzzle of a gun, is a 15th-century borrowing of a variant of the same French word.^[2][11][4] The verb is formed from the noun in English,^[2][4] though Merriam-Webster Unabridged takes it as probably from French tamponner;^[5] the OED compares that verb, used in surgery from the end of the 18th century.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A wad of absorbent material inserted into a wound or body cavity to stop bleeding: 1784, in A. Douglas's paper in Medical Communications.^[2] Barnhart, Etymonline and Merriam-Webster Unabridged date the noun to 1848.^[4][3][5]

Semantic evolution

The word came into English as a surgeons' term for a plug used to control bleeding or absorb discharges.^[2][3][7] From 1826 it was also a printmakers' dabber or ink pad, as in French.^[2][7] The OED treats the sense of a plug worn in the vagina during menstruation, recorded from 1890, as a development within English; it notes that the first patent for such a tampon was applied for by Marjorie Gray Mallinson in May 1925.^[2] The proprietary name Tampax, registered in the United States in 1932, is based on the word,^[3] and this is now its main sense.^[10][5] In slang it has been an insult for a snobbish person, since they are "stuck up" (2001), and in South Africa a word for a doctor (2005).^[12]

Timeline

• 1784 – a wad inserted into a wound or body cavity to control bleeding.^[2] Barnhart and Etymonline date it to 1848.^[4][3]
• 1826 – in printmaking, a dabber or ink pad.^[2]
• 1834 – verb, to plug with a tampon.^[2] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged date the verb to 1860.^[4][5]
• 1890 – a plug inserted into the vagina to absorb menstrual blood.^[2]
• 2001 – slang, a snobbish person.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A plug of absorbent material inserted into the vagina to absorb menstrual blood.^[10][2][5]
2. A wad of cotton or similar material put into a wound or body cavity to stop bleeding or absorb secretions.^{[10][5][2][7]}
3. (printmaking) A dabber or ink pad used to apply ink to a printing plate.^[2][5][7]
4. A two-headed drumstick sometimes used to play the bass drum.^[5]

Verb

1. To plug a wound or body cavity with a tampon.^{[10][2][5][7]}

Word family

• tamponade

Related words

• tampion
• tap
• tamp

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com