taper

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English taper, also tapre,^[2][3] inherited from Old English tapor, also tapur and taper, a candle or the wick of a lamp,^[4][5][6][7] a word not found in the related Germanic languages.^[5][7] After Kluge it is usually explained as a dissimilated form, the first p changed to t, of an unrecorded *papur,^[5][6][8][9] borrowed from Latin papȳrus (“papyrus”), because the pith of the papyrus plant was used for candle wicks.^{[10][11][12][13]} In glossaries of about 1100 the Latin word is rendered taper,^[5][9] and some Romance words from it mean "wick", such as Italian papijo in the dialects of Tuscany.^[7][14][5] Klein and Etymonline compare Old High German charza (“candle”), the source of German Kerze, from charta and Ancient Greek χάρτης (khártēs, “papyrus; wick of papyrus pith”).^[14][7] The OED calls the origin uncertain,^[5] and the American Heritage Dictionary says only "possibly" from Latin.^[15] If the explanation holds, taper is ultimately the same word as paper.^[8][15] The adjective, narrowing towards one end, was formed from the noun, perhaps through the earlier adverb taperwise, and the verb from the noun too, after the narrowing shape of a candle's flame.^{[5][7][16][12]}

Earliest recorded meaning

A wax candle, in early times used mainly for devotional or penitential purposes: before 899, in King Alfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care.^[5][6] The figurative use, something that gives light, is also Old English: in the poem The Phoenix the sun is swegles tapur.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the taper was a church candle above all: a taper berere was an acolyte, and the agent noun taperer meant a candle-bearer.^[2][7] The noun later came to mean a slender candle, and in the 19th century a long wick coated with wax, used as a spill.^[16][5] The adjective, narrowing gradually towards one end (originally upwards), appears in 1496 in the Treatise of Fishing with an Angle;^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it as "regularly narrowed from the bottom to the top; pyramidal; conical".^[17] The verb was first used in 1589, by Puttenham, of rising up like a flame or a spire, a sense now obsolete;^[5][7] Word Origins sees this image of a rising flame behind the idea of something narrowing from a broad base to a point.^[12] The sense "to become gradually narrower" followed in 1610 (by about 1600 in Etymonline),^[5][7] the transitive "to make tapering" in 1675,^[5][7] and taper off, to become gradually less or to give up a habit by degrees, in 1848.^[5][7] The noun for a tapering form, such as a spire, is recorded from 1589, and for a gradual narrowing from 1791.^[5][7] As a colloquial adjective it described dwindling money or supplies from 1789.^[5][18] In Northumberland, Cheshire and East Anglia the verb meant to reduce gradually, and also to dilute drink.^[19] Collins records a recent financial use, of a central bank gradually reducing its activity.^[20]

Timeline

• before 899 – a wax candle.^[5][6]
• before 1200 – Middle English taper, a candle.^[6][2]
• 1496 – adjective, narrowing gradually towards one end.^[5]
• 1589 – verb, to rise up like a flame or spire (now obsolete); noun, a spire or slender pyramid.^[5]
• 1610 – verb, to become gradually narrower towards one end.^[5]
• 1675 – verb, to make tapering.^[5] Etymonline dates the transitive verb to the 1670s.^[7]
• 1789 – adjective, of resources, dwindling.^[5]
• 1791 – noun, a gradual narrowing in width or thickness.^[5]
• 1848 – taper off, to diminish gradually.^[5][7]
• 1899 – verb, to reduce something gradually in quantity.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A slender candle, usually of wax.^[20][3][5]
2. A long wick coated with wax, or a thin strip of wood, used to carry a flame; a spill.^[20][3][5]
3. A faint light or source of light.^[3][5]
4. A gradual narrowing in width or thickness of a long object: the taper of a mast.^[20][3][5]
5. Something that narrows towards one end, such as a spire or a tapered tube.^[3][5]

Verb

1. To become, or make something, gradually narrower towards one end: The blade tapers to a fine point.^[20][3][5]
2. To become gradually smaller or less, or to reduce something gradually; often with off or down: Sales tapered off after the holidays.^[20][3][5]
3. Of a central bank, to reduce its activity, such as the supply of credit, by degrees.^[20]

Adjective

1. Narrowing gradually towards a point; conical or pyramidal.^[3][5][17]
2. Graduated or scaled: a taper scale of charges.^[3]

Word family

• taperingly
• taperer
• taperstick
• taper off

Related words

• paper
• papyrus

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
14. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
15. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
16. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
17. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
18. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
19. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
20. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins