tattoo

English has two words tattoo. The older, ‘military display’ (17^th c.), was borrowed from a Dutch word, taptoe, that means literally ‘tap to’, that is, ‘shut the tap’ – a signal to shut off the taps of the beer barrels at closing time in the taverns. By the time it reached English it was being used for a ‘drum beat signalling the time for soldiers to return to their quarters at night’, and in the 18th century it was applied to a ‘military display based on this’. The tattoo on the skin (18^th c.) was borrowed from a Polynesian language, such as Tahitian (tatau) or Marquesan (ta-tu).