tapia

Forms

tapia f (plural tapias)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *tapia, a Hispano-Latin word of uncertain origin shared by Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan and Occitan.^[2][3] Corominas thinks it was probably formed from an interjection ⟨tap!⟩, an imitation of the sound of earth being rammed, as Schuchardt had argued.^[2][3] He compares Catalan atapeir (“to pack down”) and Occitan tap (“clay”), and accepts Meyer-Lübke's objection that such an old formation in ⟨-ia⟩ from an imitative word must go back to the Vulgar Latin of Spain and southern France.^[2] Bénaben also calls the word pre-Roman and probably imitative.^[4] The DLE calls its origin uncertain.^[5]

Other proposals: Wiktionary derives it from Proto-Germanic *tappô (“tap, plug”), and Gómez de Silva puts it in the family of French taper (“to tap”), from a Germanic root ⟨tap-⟩.^[1][6] Corominas rejects an Arabic origin (Baist) and a Turkish one, since the word is foreign to Classical Arabic and the Arabic writers who first mention the thing describe it as typical of Spain.^[2] He also rejects Meyer-Lübke's later idea of a pre-Roman word related to Basque heipe (“porch”), which Schuchardt showed to be a recent Basque compound.^[2]

The same word is Portuguese taipa and Catalan tàpia, and it is old in Occitan, at least in Gascony and southern Languedoc.^[2][7][8] Catalan has it from 1169 and Mozarabic from the 10th century; from Spain it passed into Arabic.^[3][2] Turkish took it from Arabic as a military term for a rampart or bastion.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is a charter from Valladolid of 1222.^[2] Berceo, early in the 13th century, already uses it in the modern sense: in the Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos a prisoner is put en logar muy estrecho, de tapias bien cercado “in a very narrow place, well shut in by walls”.^[2][9] The Fuero de Alcalá (c. 1235) treats a vineyard as enclosed when it has a ditch, a tapia or a hedge five palms high.^[9]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word named both a section of rammed-earth wall and a wall built of such sections.^[3][2] From the late 13th century it was also a measure of wall, and Autoridades gives it as a measure of about fifty square feet used by pavers.^[2][10] Covarrubias described it as a wall of rammed earth that can be as strong as stone and lime, and, following Guadix, called the word Arabic.^[11] Autoridades added tapia real, a wall in which lime is mixed with the earth.^[10] The Academy's 1899 dictionary added the sense “enclosing wall”, now the most common one.^[12][5]

In the Americas the word appears from 1509 in Puerto Rico, where a barrier is measured as siete tapias high, and in 1533 the houses of the chiefs in Cuzco are said to be de tapia.^[13] The phrase más sordo que una tapia “deafer than a wall” is the usual way to call someone very deaf.^[5][14]

Timeline

• 1169 – the Catalan word is recorded in a charter.^[2]
• 1189 – DEMel's earliest primary record of tapias.^[15]
• 1222 – first record in Spanish, in a charter from Valladolid.^[2]
• c. 1236 – Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (in a late 13th-century copy) speaks of a prison shut in by tapias.^[9]
• 1220–1250 – the verb tapiar is recorded.^[3]
• 1247 – tapial, the frame in which the earth is rammed, in the Fuero de Huesca.^[2]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España tells of tapias built over a ditch like a wall.^[16]
• 1509 – first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[13]
• 1611 – Covarrubias calls the word Arabic, after Guadix.^[11]
• 1739 – Autoridades defines it as a stretch of wall of fixed size made of rammed earth.^[10]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the sense “enclosing wall”.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A section of rammed earth wall made in one piece by pressing moist earth into a form.^[5][14][1]
2. The rammed earth itself used to build such a wall.^[5]
3. A wall made of such sections.^[5][1]
4. An enclosing wall around a garden, field or yard: Saltaron la tapia del huerto.^[5][17]
5. (construction, historical) A measure of wall surface, in Madrid 49 or 50 square feet.^[5]

Word family

• tapial
• tapiar
• tapiador

Related words

• Portuguese taipa
• Catalan tàpia

Usage notes

Tapia real is a wall of earth mixed with some lime;^[18] más sordo que una tapia means “very deaf”.^[5] In northern Argentina tapia also means “bad omen” or “ill-omened”, a sense Corominas finds hard to explain, perhaps from the cemetery wall.^[2][18] In Argentina it is also the name of a fruit tree, Crataeva tapia.^[18] The old thieves' slang used tapia for the accomplice who hides the stolen goods.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 410
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tapia
4. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. tapia
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. tapia
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. tapia
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 3210
8. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. tàpia
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. tapia
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 225
11. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1318
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 945
13. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. tapia
14. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tapia
15. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. tapia
16. ^ Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. tapia
17. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. tapia
18. ^ a b c Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 133
19. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1559