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.
1 Comment
Jim Brown
6/4/2020 12:21:52 am
Early diapers were white and had a pattern? Seems unlikely.
Reply
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AUTHORHello! I'm Adam Aleksic. This year, I graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Government and Linguistics. There, I co-founded the Harvard Undergraduate Linguistics Society and wrote a thesis on Serbo-Croatian language policy, magna cum laude. In addition to etymology, I also really enjoy philosophy, trivia, vexillology, geography, board games, conlanging, art history, and law.
Archives
May 2022
TAGS |