taper
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈteɪpə/
ipa: /ˈteɪpɚ/
rhymes: -eɪpə(ɹ)
homophone: tapir
Forms: form: tapers
Etymology: 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”). If so, it is a doublet of papyrus. Alternatively, of Celtic origin related to Irish tapar (“taper”), Welsh tampr (“a taper, torch”); further compare Sanskrit तपती (tápati, “(it) warms, gives out heat, is hot; (it) heats”). More at tepid.
Senses: examples: text: Strike on the Tinder, hoa: / Giue me a Taper: […]
ref: c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 311, line 157:
text: Take not away the Taper, leaue it burning:
ref: 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 376, column 2:
text: He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
ref: 1813 August 13, Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Isaac McPherson:
text: The red glare of the tapers flung a strange unnatural hue on the painted windows of the little Gothic chapel, where none slept save the noble of name, and the high of blood—purple and crimson, the colours mingled together in fantastic combinations, till the rainbow-hued figures seemed to move with supernatural life.
ref: 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIX, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 160:
text: 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.
ref: 1913, Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Change:
glosses: A slender wax candle.
glosses: A small light.
examples: text: the taper of a spire
text: The legs of the table had a slight taper to them.
text: 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.
ref: 2005, Michael Ellis, Apollo Rises, page 15:
glosses: A tapering form; gradual diminution of thickness and/or cross section in an elongated object.
examples: text: ensuring the cleanliness of the taper of a machine tool spindle or of a tool shank
glosses: The portion of an object with such a form.
topics: engineering
machining
mechanical-engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: Ellipsis of machine taper.
glosses: A thin stick used for lighting candles, either a wax-coated wick or a slow-burning wooden rod.
glosses: A cone-shaped item for stretching the hole for an ear gauge (piercing).
examples: text: a drug taper
glosses: Gradual reduction over time.
Derived terms: critical taper
hag-taper
high taper
Luer taper
machine taper
taper candle
taper fade
taper pin
taperwise
time-taper