taperとは意味・読み方・使い方

発音

• (Received 発音) IPA^(key): /ˈteɪpə/
• (米国発音) IPA^(key): /ˈteɪpɚ/
• 韻: -eɪpə(ɹ)
• Homophone: tapir

語源 1

From Middle English taper, from 古期英語 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 and paper. 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.

tapers (slender wax candles)

名詞

taper (複数形 tapers)

1. A slender wax candle.
   • c. 1603–1604, 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 606515358, [Act I, scene i], line 157, page 311:

     Strike on the Tinder, hoa: / Giue me a Taper: […]

   • 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 606515358, [Act II, scene ii], page 376, column 2:

     Take not away the Taper, leaue it burning:

   • 1813 August 13, Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Isaac McPherson:

     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.

   • 1834, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Francesca Carrara, volume 3, page 160:

     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.

   • 1913, Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Change

     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.

2. (by extension) A small light.
3. A tapering form; gradual diminution of thickness and/or cross section in an elongated object.

   the taper of a spire

   The legs of the table had a slight taper to them.

   • 2005, Michael Ellis, Apollo Rises (page 15)

     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.

4. A thin stick used for lighting candles, either a wax-coated wick or a slow-burning wooden rod.
5. A cone-shaped item for stretching the hole for an ear gauge (piercing).

派生語

• taperwise

動詞

taper (三人称単数 現在形 tapers, 現在分詞 tapering, 過去形および過去分詞形 tapered)

1. (transitive) To make thinner or narrower at one end.
   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 3”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, OCLC 57395299:

     Though true cylinders without — within, the villainous green goggling glasses deceitfully tapered downwards to a cheating bottom.

2. (intransitive) To diminish gradually.
3. (intransitive) (of a central bank) To tighten monetary policy.

同意語

• narrow

派生語

• taper off

形容詞

taper

1. Tapered; narrowing to a point.

語源 2

tape +‎ -er

名詞

taper (複数形 tapers)

1. (weaving) One who operates a tape machine.
2. Someone who works with tape or tapes.

アナグラム

• Peart, Petra, apert, apter, parte, pater, peart, petar, petra, prate, preta, reapt, repat, retap, trape, treap