English Explanatory Dictionary

tampon

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A plug of cotton or other absorbent material inserted into a body cavity or wound to absorb fluid, especially one inserted in the vagina during menstruation.
  2. A double-headed drumstick primarily for the bass drum.
  3. An inking pad used in lithographic printing.
verb
  1. To plug (a wound) with a tampon or compress.

Pronunciation

[ˈtʰæmpɒn] LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-tampon.wav [ˈtʰæmpɑn]

Word forms

tampon tampons tamponing tamponning tamponed tamponned

Etymology

First attested in 1848. Borrowed from French tampon, from Middle French tampon, a nasalised variant of tapon, a diminutive or augmented form of Old French tape (“plug, bung, tap”), from Frankish *tappō (“stopper, plug”), from Proto-Germanic *tappô (“plug, tap”). Cognate with Old High German zapfo (“stopper”), Old English tæppa (“stopper”). Doublet of tampion. More at tap.

Synonyms

vampire's teabag

Related words

sanitary napkin sanitary towel tampion

Derived words

emotional tampon manpon nasal tampon tampo tampography tamponade Tampongate tamponment Tampon Tim
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on T Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary