Also 1 tapor, -ur; 3–5 tapere, 4–5 tapre, -ur, -ir, 5 -yr, 5–7 tapper, 6 tapar, -ire, 7 tapor, -our. [OE. tapur, -or, -er: not in the cognate langs. According to Kluge, Engl. Stud., XX. 335, a dissimilated form of *papur, ad. L. papyrus, which in glossaries (a. 1100) is rendered ‘taper,’ and in some Romanic forms has the sense ‘wick of a candle,’ for which the pith of the papyrus was used. See Körting No. 6852.]
1. Originally, A wax candle, in early times used chiefly for devotional or penitential purposes; now spec. a long wick coated with wax for temporary use as a spill, etc. To hold a taper to the devil: cf. CANDLE sb. 5 b.
c. 897. K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past. C., xxxvi. 258. He hiene onælð mid ðæm tapore [Hatton MS. tapure] ðæs godcundan lieȝȝes.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., III. 202. Wex oððe taperas, ȝesihð blisse hit ȝetacnat.
c. 1100. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 267/12. Lampas, leohtfæt. Candela, candel. Papirus, taper.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 47. On ure honde beren candele berninde, taper oðer candele.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 19/12. Seint Dunstones moder taper a fuyre werth a-non.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XVII. 203. To a torche or a tapre þe trinitee is lykned.
c. 1460. Brut, 508. She was enioyned to open penaunce, forto go thrugh Chepe, bering a tapere in hir hand.
a. 1512. Fabyan, Will, in Chron. (1811), Pref. 4. That they doo purvay for .iiii. tapers of iii lb. evry pece, to brenne aboute the corps and herse for the forsaid .ii. seasons.
1530. Palsgr., 279/1. Tapar of waxe, cierge.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., IV. iii. 275. How ill this Taper burnes.
1635. A. Stafford, Fem. Glory, 153. Very many Tapours were burning in the Church.
1653. Gataker, Vind. Annot. Jer., 36. To stoop so low, as to bear a taper before the Divel.
1696. Phillips (ed. 5), Taper, a long and large siz’d Light made in form of a Pyramid made of Wax, and made use of in Churches for the most part.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., V. 720. Our birth is nothing but our death begun; As tapers waste, that instant they take fire.
1869. Tozer, Highl. Turkey, II. 115. The number of tapers, which,… on festivals, were lighted in all parts of it [a church].
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 79. A glowing taper bursts into flame when plunged into oxygen.
b. fig. Something that gives light or is figured as burning; in modern use esp. a thing that gives a feeble light.
a. 1000. Phœnix, 114, in Codex Exon., Sweȝles tapur.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 267. Tapers they are, with your sweete breathes puft out.
1635. A. Stafford, Fem. Glory, 8. The Apostles, those holy Tapours of the primitive Church.
1646. J. Hall, Horæ Vac., 8. The Tapour of Devotion burnes but dimly.
1646. Jenkyn, Remora, 22. God may suffer the taper of the opportunity to burn out.
1699. Pomfret, Poems (ed. 11), 44. The twinkling Tapers of the Night.
1770. Goldsm., Des. Vill., 87. To husband out life’s taper at the close.
1808. Skurray, Bidcombe Hill, 23. Whilst from the sky, the new-born moon display’d Her feeble taper, twinkling thro’ the gloom.
1821. Shelley, Adonais, v. And happier they … Whose tapers yet burn through that night of time In which suns perished.
2. attrib. and Comb., as taper-flame, -fly, -light, -spark, -stand, -stick; taper-bearer, -holder, -maker; taper-lighted adj.: † taperwort, the Great Torch Mullein (Verbascum Thapsus).
c. 1450. in Aungier, Syon (1840), 342. They schal reuerently holde them styl in ther handes, ȝe also the *taperebererars as moche as they may,… in to tyme they haue offred hem at autyr to the preste.
1818. Keats, Endymion, III. 116. Like *taper-flame … He rose in silence.
1616. Drumm. of Hawth., Song, Poems (1656), 60. Like a *Taper-fly there burne thy Wings.
1907. Daily Chron., 11 April, 3/7. A little pierced *taper-holder, with gadrooned edge, dated 1764.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 103. Let … no man sette pearchers or *taper light before the Gods.
1595. Shaks., John, IV. ii. 14. With Taper-light To seeke the beauteous eye of heauen to garnish, Is wastefull, and ridiculous excesse.
1814. Scott, Ld. of Isles, III. viii. A taper-light gleams on the floor.
1850. Allingham, Poems, Light[house], ii. Our fire and *taper-lighted room.
1396–7. Abingdon Acc. (Camden), 66. Johannes *Tapermaker ‘pro Rectore de Appleton.’
1877. Allingham, Songs, Ball. & Stories, Pilot Boat, ii. A cottage by the strand With its feeble *taper-spark.
1837. Lockhart, Scott, vi. (1839), I. 253. His first fee … was expended on a silver *taper-stand for his mother.
1546. in Hardiman, O’Flaherty’s Iar Connaught (1846), 230. Two candell or *tapire styckes of Shylver.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 274. The great Mullen or *Taperwort.
[Cf. 1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 118. The whole top with his pleasant yellow floures sheweth like to a waxe candell or taper cunningly wrought.]
