Tattoo

The word is derived by Johnson from the French tapotez tous; and its original form seems to have been ‘tap-to’ (see Count Mansfield's ‘Directions of Warre,’ 1624), as if it were the signal for the tap-rooms or bars of the canteen to put-to or close. Curiously enough, however, ‘tap’ seems to be an acknowledged term for the drum—‘tap of drum.’ Tapoter is probably allied to the German zapfen, the tap of a cask, and , the tap of a cask, and ...