THOROUGHLY WHITE

The word diaper was first used in a story about a knight from the year 1350, when it was spelled diapre. After that, it also took the forms ​dyapre, dyapere, dyaper, dyoper, dieper, dyeper, diapre, and dipar until diaper became the standard during the seventeenth century. The term comes from the Old French word diapre, which specifically referred to a a type of cloth with a repeating pattern (these were often used as diapers). That, through Latin diasprum, traces to the Ancient Greek word diaspros, which was composed of the prefix dia-, meaning "across" or "thoroughly, and the root aspros, "white" (the diapres were typically white). Dia derives from Proto-Indo-European dwo ("two") and aspros was relatively rare but is thought to also be from PIE. The British slang word nappy is a diminutive of napkin.