Talk:tattoo

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tattoo

Etymology 2: "From taptoe, the time to close the taps." Looks like an etymology. "Time to close the taps" appears to be a definition of the Dutch taptoe. Pingku 15:03, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

From what I can gather it is a reference to closing beer taps, thus signalling the "end of the day." I think that is specific to the Dutch - "taptoe" being "tap" + "to." Not nautical. I have requested an entry for "taptoe." Pingku 09:20, 30 May 2010 (UTC)

Delete on the grounds I have no idea what it means. Mglovesfun (talk) 23:34, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

Yes, delete the sense, it is just the etymology. Dbfirs 08:53, 11 June 2010 (UTC)

But Dutch taptoe does not mean "time to close the taps" (well, at least, it doesn't mean that anymore), it's either (military) "evening/night roll call" or "military music performance" (esp. during the evening). If the sense "close the taps" has survived in English nautical use, that would be somewhat relevant. --Erik Warmelink 19:50, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

Whether or not "time to close the taps" is a correct etymology (or a correct translation of Dutch "taptoe") is secondary to the point that the sense we are discussing is not a definition (which it should be), but rather an attempted etymology. I'd still like to see a Dutch "taptoe" entry, though. It would be nice to get the etymology correct (and in the right place). Pingku 16:48, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

Sense deleted.​—msh210℠ (talk) 16:18, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

Pronunciation

[tʰæˈtʰu], that's English? Isn't it just the same pronunciation throughout, /tætuː/? Mglovesfun (talk) 20:16, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

It all depends on how narrow the transcription is supposed to be; it certainly is technically accurate, because the English voiceless stops really are almost always aspirated. I think that even the indicated fronting of the [u:] is correct to some degree or another for most contemporary accents (perhaps not for the traditional New York ("Brooklyn") accent and some other American varieties, as well as some rather old-fashioned forms of RP). But transcriptions on Wiktionary usually aren't that narrow, so it does seem a bit odd. --91.148.130.233 11:27, 3 April 2014 (UTC)