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TAP (1),
to strike or knock gently. (F.,—Teut.) M.E. tappen,
to tap; the imperative appears as tep (for tap), Ancren Riwle, p.
296, l. 4; cf. tappe, sb., a tap, Gawain and the Grene Knight, 2357.—F.
taper, tapper, 'to tap, strike, hit, bob, clap;' Cot. Of Teut.
origin; Low G. and G. tappen, to grope, to fumble, tapp, tappe,
the fist or paw, a blow, a kick. So also Icel. tapsa, to
tap. Prob. of imitative origin; cf. Russ. topate, to stamp
with the foot; Malay tabah, to beat out corn, tapuk, to slap, pat,
dab (Marsden's Dict. pp. 69, 77); Arab. tabl, a drum; E. dub-a-dub,
noise of a drum, E. dab, a pat. Der. tap, sb.
And see tip (2). TAP
(2), a short pipe through
which liquor is drawn from a cask, a plug to stop a hole in a cask.
(E.) M.E. tappe, Chaucer, C. T. 3890. Somner
gives A.S. tæppe, a tap, and tæppan, to tap; but they are not found; we
do, however, find the sb. tæppere, one who taps casks; 'Caupo, tabernarius,
tæppere,' Wright's Gloss., p. 28, l. 10. + Du. tap, sb.; whence
tappen, verb. +
Icel. tappi, sb.; tappa, vb. + Dan. tap, sb.; tappe, vb. + Swed.
tapp, a tap,
handful, wisp; whence tappa, vb. + G. zapfen, sb. and vb.; O.H.G. zapho, sb.
(Fick). β. All from Teut. base TAPAN, a tap; Fick, iii.
117. The Swed. tapp means a wisp, handful, and G. zapfen is bung,
stopple. Prob. the orig. idea (as Wedgwood suggests) was a bunch of
some material to stop a hole with, a tuft of something. We may
connect it, as Fick does, with E. top, G. zopf; the G. zopf means a top of a
tree, a weft or tuft of hair, a 'pig-tail;' and the Icel. toppr means, first of
all, a tuft or lock of hair. We even find Gael. tap, tow wreathed on
a distaff, a forelock. Certainly tap, top, tuft are related words;
see Top, Tuft. Der.
tap, vb., Merry Wives, i. 3. 11; tap-room; tap-root, a root like a tap, i.e. conical, cf. G.
zapfen, a tap, cone of a fir, zapfenwurzel, a tap-root. Also
tapster, M.E. tapstere, Chaucer, C.
T. 241, A.S. tæppestre, Ælfric's Grammar, ed. Zupitza, p. 36, l. 13, a fem.
form of A.S. tæppere, a tapper, as above; for the suffix
-ster, see Spinster. Also
tampion, q.v.
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