Etymograph

English

tapet

Tapet comes from Proto-West Germanic *tapped ‘carpet, tapestry’, and goes back to Ancient Greek τάπης.

  1. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEτάπης‘carpet, rug’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtapēsas tapētum‘rug, carpet’
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*tapped‘carpet, tapestry’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150teped
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1590tapet

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEτάπης‘carpet, rug’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtapēsas tapētum‘rug, carpet’
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*tapped‘carpet, tapestry’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150teped
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1590tapet

Earliest quotation: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book III, Canto XI: “And in thoſe Tapets weren faſhioned / Many faire…”

The story

From Old English teped, tæpped, from Proto-West Germanic *tapped, from Latin tapētum (later influenced by or re-borrowed from Latin).

Linked words

through Ancient Greek τάπης ‘carpet, rug’

tapestry, 3 more

Today it means

noun A decorative wall-hanging; a hanging cloth or piece of tapestry.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Ancient Greek τάπης / tapet

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