[Ads-l] Subject: Green's _cop a tapper_ (v.) [SE tap one=?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80=99s_?=feet]

[Wilson Gray]

(US black/Harlem) to take a walk.


"to go on foot" is probably a better interpretation. As for the etymology,
there is no connection with tapping one's feet. Rather, it has to do with
the custom of immediately having the heels and toes of one's brand-new
shoes shod with small steel plates usually called "taps," but sometimes
called "heel-plates" and "toe-plates." The ostensible reason for doing this
was to keep oneself well-shod, preventing one's _States_ - Stacy-Adams
shoes - from devolving into _Dunlops_, i.e. shoes with "heels worn down and
done lopped over."

Naturally, the wearing of shoes with taps while walking, e.g. along the
sidewalk or down a ceramic-tile-floored hall makes a fairly-loud, tapping
or clicking sound. This is/was? considered to be *very* cool. So, there
were random expressions like "cop a tap(per)" and "get one's heels to
clicking" et sim. to describe the act of walking.

These taps are far smaller than the huge steel plates used on the tap-shoes
worn by tap-dancers.

-- 
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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