tapas

A variety of Spanish small savoury food items or snacks such as croquettes, cured meat, potato salad, and seafood, originally served with sherry and now often with other alcoholic beverages as well.

Noun plural, plural normally

  1. A variety of Spanish small savoury food items or snacks such as croquettes, cured meat, potato salad, and seafood, originally served with sherry and now often with other alcoholic beverages as well.
    • The snacks are called tapas because in the old days a piece of toast was served, too, so that you might have a "top" on your glass of sherry, a lid that would prevent the flies from getting into the glass. - 1986, Jeff...
    • Most food scholars agree that the tapas tradition originated in the wine-growing regions of Andalusia, eventually spreading throughout the country. The Moors (Muslim Arabs), who dominated Spain from the beginning of the...

Origin

From Spanish tapas, the plural of tapa (“appetizer, tapa; cap, lid (cover of a container)”) (from the fact that plates of tapas were originally placed on the tops of glasses of alcoholic beverages as lids), from Gothic *𐍄𐌰𐍀𐍀𐌰 (*tappa), from Proto-Germanic *tappô (“plug; tap”), from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂p- (“to lose; to sacrifice”). Doublet of tap.

Forms

tapa

Hypernyms

small plates

Derived

tapaslike

Noun Hinduism, Jainism

  1. asceticism and self-discipline.

Origin

From Sanskrit तप् (tap, “heat; to be hot”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tep- (“to be warm or hot”). Related to tepid.

Noun form of, plural

  1. plural of tapa

Origin

Etymology tree English tapa Old English -as Middle English -es English -s English tapas From tapa + -s.