tampon

Forms

tampon m (plural tampons)^[1] The older form without the nasal vowel, tapon, is recorded from 1382 and survives in a few technical and regional uses.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from French tapon, with a nasalized first vowel.^[3][2][4][5] That word is from Frankish *tappō (“peg, bung”),^[2][4][6][7] from Proto-Germanic *tappô (“plug, tap”).^[1] The Frankish noun is reconstructed from its Germanic cognates, among them Old High German zaphon, Middle Dutch tappe, German Zapfen (“bung, valve”), Old English tæppa and English tap.^[2][4][1] Its verb, *tappōn, gave the French technical verb taper “to plug”.^[2][4]

The Romance verbs Catalan tapar, Spanish tapar and Italian tappare “to plug, stop up” are probably from the Gothic word of the same origin.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, in a 1388 inventory of the dukes of Burgundy, is for the cylindrical wooden plug that closed the mouth of a cannon;^[3] a 15th-century text speaks of four or five hundred wooden tampons for cannons.^[8] By 1430 it meant any plug of hard material or any soft mass rolled or pressed to stop an opening.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the plug for closing a hole came a long list of technical senses: the stopper of an organ pipe (1636), the wooden peg set between joists to hold the masonry of a partition (1676), the plug for a ship's hawseholes (1694), the peg driven into a wall to take a nail or screw (1755) and the stone slab or metal lid of a sewer (1842).^[3][2] Since a plug was often made of cloth, the word also came to mean a small pad for spreading a liquid: an engraver's felt pad for inking a plate (1676), a pad for spreading varnish (1757), and the pad of cotton or gauze used to stop bleeding or clean the skin (1810).^[3][2] The inked pad for a rubber stamp is recorded in 1875, the rubber stamp itself in 1908 and the mark it leaves in 1932.^[3]

In the 19th century the word was used for the buffers between railway carriages (1856), then for anything that softens a shock between two sides: a person who smooths over a quarrel (1864), the État tampon “buffer state” (1903) and zone tampon (1951).^[3][2] The same idea gave its uses in chemistry (1929), for the buffer substances that keep the blood's acid–base balance, and in computing (1971).^[3][2] In army slang it named a flat cap (1901) and then an officer's orderly (1902), senses now dated.^[3][2]

English took tampon in 1848 for a plug of cotton to stop a flow of blood.^[9]

Timeline

• 1382 – The older form tapon is used for a wooden cylinder driven into a cannon's bore.^[2][3]
• 1388 – Tampon is first recorded, for the plug of a cannon's mouth.^[3][2]
• 1430 – It is used of any plug or pressed mass that stops an opening.^[3][4]
• 1676 – Félibien uses it for a peg between joists and for an engraver's inking pad.^[3]
• 1810 – It names a pad of cotton or gauze used to stop bleeding.^[3][2]
• 1848 – English borrows the word.^[9]
• 1856 – It is used for the buffers of railway carriages.^[3][2]
• 1875 – The ink pad for a stamp is recorded.^[3]
• 1903 – État-tampon “buffer state” appears.^[3]
• 1908 – Gaston Leroux uses it for a rubber stamp.^[3][2]
• 1929 – Chemistry speaks of buffer substances.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A plug or stopper, a small hard or pressed soft mass used to stop a hole or the flow of a liquid.^[6][10]
2. A wall plug, a peg set in a wall to take a nail or a screw.^[6][10]
3. (technical) A metal plate or lid closing an opening, such as the cover of a manhole.^[6]
4. A pad of rolled or pressed material used to spread a liquid, clean a surface or stop bleeding, also a menstrual tampon.^[6][1]
5. An ink pad, and a rubber stamp or the mark it leaves: le tampon de la poste.^[1][2]
6. A buffer on railway rolling stock.^[3][2]
7. (figurative) A person or thing placed between two opposing sides to soften the clash, often in apposition: État tampon, zone tampon.^[1][2]
8. (chemistry, computing) A buffer.^[1]

Word family

• tamponnage
• tamponnade
• tamponner

Related words

• tapon
• taper

Usage notes

Je m'en soucie comme de colin-tampon “I don't care a straw about it” is a familiar phrase recorded by Littré.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 s Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
4. ^ a b c d e f Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 17, 309b
8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)