Another Etymology of "Tattoo"
This story, "County to hold Twilight Tattoo tonight" is from the Prince George's County, Maryland gazette.net. No, it's not about a skin art; a tattoo, in another and older meaning, refers to a military marching exercise, generally Scottish. The use of the term here is curious since the participants are high school bands and drill teams.Of greater interest is the explanation offered on the derivation of the word "tattoo". In an earlier posting, a reference was included to a story also containing a historic derivation which I don't think sounded anything like this one. Here's the current offer-
Twilight Tattoo is a military tradition dating back to the 1600s and the Thirty Years War in Europe. During the evenings, bugles sounded to signal soldiers to close taverns and return to their quarters. Someone would hammer, or ‘‘tap to,” stoppers back into the kegs.
Over time, the phrase ‘‘tap to” evolved to the word ‘‘tattoo” and has become an Army tradition signifying the day’s end.
Even if this were true, we're still waiting for a bridge that gets us, conceptually, from "day's end" to skin art. If anything, it sounds like this explanation is a better one for the sense of "taps", refering to the end of day bugle call used in the military.
Link to article-
posted by Tony Wilkie @ 5:52 PM
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