LL-L "Etymology" 2007.11.28 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L  -  26 November 2007 - Volume 02
Song Contest: lowlands-l.net/contest/ (- 31 Dec. 2007)
=========================================================================

From: Brooks, Mark <mark.brooks at twc.state.tx.us>
Subject: LL-L "Language varietiess" 2007.11.27 (06) [E]

Sandy wrote: "One of the really big Scottish events of the year is the
Edinburgh
Tattoo, which is watched avidly by traditional Scots all over the
country when it's shown on TV."

Just a few weeks ago I had the pleasure to attend a Scottish Tattoo in
Salado, Texas.  Salado sits just up the road (north) from Austin on I-35.
 Every year they have a Scottish clan gathering in Salado.  My wife and I
have been a couple of times, but this year was our first time to see a
tattoo.  Two pipe and drum corps played.  I really enjoyed it.  In fact, I
took a few photos.  One of them I put on a photo web site.  Perhaps, y'all
would like to see it:
http://www.picable.com/People/Men/The-Perennial-Bagpiper.57617.  The tattoo
took place in the ruins of an old school (Salado College) built out of
limestone.  One of the columns still stands and the lights cast a perfect
shadow of a bagpiper.  I was lucky enough to see it and snap a photo.

Of course, I immediately wanted to know where the word "tattoo" came from.
I checked it on Google and found a reference to a time when Scottish troops
were stationed in the Netherlands.  Allegedly, every night the pipe and drum
corps would march through town to tell the bars when to "doe den tap toe."
At least, that's what I remember reading.  Does anyone know if that story is
accurate?

Mark Brooks
----------

From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Etymology

Hi, Mark!

My first reaction was "What?!" And then I found that the *Oxford English
Dictionary* agrees with it and it all starts making sense:

[In 17th c. *tap-too*, a. Du. *taptoe* in same sense; f. *tap* the tap (of a
cask), + *toe* = *doe toe* 'shut'. So Sw. *tapto*, Sp. (1706) *tatu*. Cf.
Ger. *zapfenstreich*, LG. *tappenslag*, Da. *tappenstreg*, with the first
element the same, and second element meaning 'stroke, beat'.
  Although Du. *tap toe* was in military use in our sense 1 in the 17th c.,
there is reason to doubt if this was its original use. *Tap toe* = *doe den
tap toe* 'put the tap to', 'close or turn off the tap', was app. already in
colloquial use for 'shut up! stop! cease!'; Dr. Kluyver points out, in a
play of 1639 from Emden, *Doch hier de tap van toe* = 'but here we shut up',
or 'say no more'.]

How Lowlands is that? What a blast! (Pun intended?)

So it must be Dutch in origin because of the *toe* [tu(:)] ('to' >) 'shut',
versus Low Saxon *to(u)* [toU] ('to' >) 'shut'.

Apart from having tattoos at various regional highland games in the States,
many of us here also get to watch recordings of the Edinburgh Tattoo on TV.

And that's unrelated to all the body art that is going on around here.

[In 18th c. *tattaow*, *tattow* (ta'taʊ), a. Polynesian (Tahitian, Samoan,
Tongan, etc.) *[image: {sm}]tatau* (in Marquesan *[image: {sm}]tatu*) n.
denoting the markings. (For the vb. the expression is *ta [image: {sm}]tatau
* to strike or stamp tattoo.)
The word is recorded from Tahiti as *tataou* in Bougainville's *Voyage
autour du Monde* 1766-9 (Paris 1771), and as *tattow* in Capt. Cook's *First
Voyage* July 1769. The current Eng. *tattoo* and F. *tatou* are perversions
of the native name.]

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20071128/37df093e/attachment.htm>