▪ I. diaper, n.
(ˈdaɪəpə(r))
Forms: 4–6 diapre, dyapre, 5 dyapere, 6 dyoper, dieper, dyeper, 6–7 dyaper, (7 dipar, dibar), 6– diaper.
[ME. a. OF. dyapre, diapre, orig. diaspre (Godef.), Pr. diaspre, diaspe, in med.L. diasprus adj., diaspra, diasprum (c 1023), n. (Du Cange); in Byzantine Gr. δίασπρος adj., f. δια- (dia-1) + ἄσπρος white.
Early French references mention diaspre ‘que fu fais en Costantinoble’ and ‘dyaspre d'Antioch’, and associate it with other fabrics of Byzantine or Levantine origin. Thus, the Roman de la Rose l. 21193 (Meon III. 294) has ‘Cendaux, molequins arrabis, Indes, vermaux, jaunes et bis, Samis, diapres, camelos’. The word occurs in mediæval Greek, c 959, in Constantine Porphyrogenitus De Ceremoniis Aulæ Byzant. (Bonn 1829–40, p. 528) where the ἱµάτιον or robe used in the investment of a Rector is described as δίασπρον. On the analogy of διάλευκος, δίασπρος may mean ‘white at intervals, white interspersed with other colour’; though the sense might also be ‘thoroughly’ or ‘pure white.’ In OF., diaspre is often described as blanc. (The It., Sp., and Pg. diaspro ‘jasper’ appears to be unconnected with F. and Prov. diaspre ‘diaper’. Du Cange has mixed up the two. A gratuitous guess that the name was perhaps derived from Ypres in Flanders has no etymological or historical basis.)]
I. 1. The name of a textile fabric; now, and since the 15th c., applied to a linen fabric (or an inferior fabric of ‘union’ or cotton) woven with a small and simple pattern, formed by the different directions of the thread, with the different reflexions of light from its surface, and consisting of lines crossing diamond-wise, with the spaces variously filled up by parallel lines, a central leaf or dot, etc.
In earlier times, esp. in OFr. and med.L., the name was applied to a richer and more costly fabric, apparently of silk, woven or flowered over the surface with gold thread. See Francisque Michel, Recherches sur les Etoffes de Soie, d'Or et d'Argent (Paris 1852) I. 236–244.
| a 1350 Syr Degarre 802 In a diapre clothed ȝhe was. 13.. Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS. xlvi. 200 Til a Nonnerie þei came; But I knowe not þe name: Þer was mony a derworþe dame In Dyapre dere. 1466 Mann. & Househ. Exp. 364 Paid for xj. Flemyshe stykes of fyne dyapere..xxvij. vj.d. 1502 Arnolde Chron. (1811) 244 A borde cloth of dyaper, a towell of dyaper. 1513 Bk. Kervynge in Babees Bk. 268 Couer thy cupborde and thyn ewery with the towell of dyaper. 1513 Bradshaw St. Werburge i. 1667 The tables were couered with clothes of Dyaper Rychely enlarged with syluer and with golde. 1552–3 Inv. Ch. Goods Staff. in Ann. Litchfield IV. 50 One vestement of red sylke, one vestement of lynen dyoper. 1591 Spenser Muiopotmos 364 Nor anie weauer, which his worke doth boast In dieper, in damaske, or in lyne. 1623 Cockeram, Diaper, a fine kinde of Linnin, not wouen after the common fashion, but in certaine workes. 1624 Will in Ripon Ch. Acts 364 One suite of damaske and another of diaper for his table. 1662 Vestry Bks. (Surtees) 198 For Dyaper for a Communion table cloth and napkin, 12s. 6d. 1721 Lond. Gaz. No. 6020/4 Diapers, Damasks, Huckabacks. 1840 Barham Ingol. Leg., Jackd. Rheims, A napkin..Of the best white diaper fringed with pink. 1888 J. Watson Art Weaving (ed. 3) 101 [This] makes by far the best bird-eye Diaper. |
2. A towel, napkin, or cloth of this material; a baby's napkin or ‘clout’.
| 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. i. i. 57 Let one attend him vvith a siluer Bason Full of Rose-water, and bestrew'd with Flowers, Another beare the Ewer: the third a Diaper. 1837 H. Martineau Soc. Amer. II. 245 Table and bed⁓linen, diapers, blankets. 1889 J. M. Duncan Lect. Dis. Women ix. (ed. 4) 54. |
II. 3. The geometrical or conventional pattern or design forming the ground of this fabric.
| 1830 Edin. Encycl. VI. 686 A design of that intermediate kind of ornamental work which is called diaper. 1882 Beck Draper's Dict. 97 Some of the diapers are very curious. One of them consists of a series of castles; in each are two men holding hawks; the size of each diaper being about six inches, and the date the fourteenth century. |
4. A pattern or design of the same kind, or more florid, in colour, gilding, or low relief, used to decorate a flat surface, as a panel, wall, etc.
| 1851 Turner Dom. Archit. I. vi. 305 There are still some remains of good distemper diaper on the walls. 1863 Sir G. G. Scott Westm. Abbey (ed. 2) 61 The glass..is decorated on its face with gold diaper. 1866 Athenæum 17 Nov. 645/2 The diaper, composed of a raised pattern, decorating the background. 1884 Pall Mall G. 11 Sept. 5/1 The ground is most beautifully carved in a minute hexagonal diaper. |
b. Heraldry. A similar style of ornamentation, in painting or low relief, used to cover the surface of a shield and form the ground on which the bearing is charged. See diapre.
| 1634 Peacham Gentl. Exerc. iii. 159 Some charge their Scotcheons..with diaper as the French. 1882 Cussans Handbk. Her. v. 81 To represent the Diaper by a slightly darker tint of the same tincture as that on which it is laid. |
c. fig. Applied to the floral variegation of the surface of the ground.
| 1600 Maides Metam. ii. in Bullen O. Pl. I. 118 This grassie bed, With summers gawdie dyaper bespred. |
III. 5. attrib. a. Of or made of diaper (see 1).
(In quot. 1497 perh. for F. diapré, diapered.)
| 1497 Old City Acc. Bk. in Archæol. Jrnl. XLIII, Itm a table cloth diapre. 1538 Bury Wills (1850) 134 A dyeper towell of vij yarde longe. 1599 Nottingham Rec. IV. 250 Halfe a dosen of diaper napkins..one diaper table cloathe. 1604 Vestry Bks. (Surtees) 140 A poulpit clothe of silke, one owld dipar tablecloth. 1676 Lond. Gaz. No. 1124/4 One Damask and two Diaper Table Cloaths, three dozen of Diaper Napkins. 1812 J. Smyth Pract. Customs (1821) 130 Diaper Tabling, of the manufacture of the kingdom of the United Netherlands. 1863 M. E. Braddon J. Marchmont I. ii. 30 Her brown-stuff frock and scanty diaper pinafore. |
b. Having a pattern of this kind, diapered; as diaper-work, diaper-pattern, diaper-couching.
| 1480 Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV (1830) 131 Table clothes off dyaper werk ij. 1602 Carew Cornwall (1811) 303 Two moor stones..somewhat curiously hewed, with diaper work. 1769 De Foe's Tour Gt. Brit. I. 392 Both of them were curiously wrought by Diaper-work Carvings. 1838 Archæol. XXVII. 421 What the older Diaper-work was—a small regular pattern—we may gather from its appearance as borrowed in Heraldry. 1859 Turner Dom. Archit. III. ii. 29 The spandrel of the arch is carved with a sort of diaper pattern. 1874 Parker Illustr. Goth. Archit. i. v. 175 The surface of the wall is often covered with flat foliage, arranged in small squares called diaper-work. 1876 Gwilt Archit. Gloss. 1231 Diaper Work, the face of stone worked into squares or lozenges, with a leaf therein; as over arches and between bands. 1882 Caulfeild & Saward Dict. Needlework 153 Diaper couching, a variety of couching used in Church Work. 1886 Ruskin Præterita I. 335 The diaper pattern of the red and white marbles. |
▸ diaper rash n. N. Amer. = nappy rash n. at nappy n.3 Compounds 2.
| 1919 N.Y. Times 14 July 28/4 (advt.) It [sc. the powder Kora Konia] has been used for several years in hospitals to relieve the skin irritation of bed patients and to free babies from the intolerable suffering of *diaper rash. 1995 Best Wishes Spring–Summer 28/1 When diaper rash does not respond to treatment, there may be a secondary infection. |
▪ II. diaper, v.
(ˈdaɪəpə(r))
[prob. a. F. diaprer, OF. diasprer, f. diapre, diaspre: see prec. n.]
1. trans. To diversify the surface or ground of (anything) with a small uniform pattern; now spec. with one consisting of or based upon a diamond-shaped reticulation.
| c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints, Eugenia 711 And cled hyr wele..In clath, dyopret of gold fyne. c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 1300 Couered in clooth of gold dyapered weel. c 1400 Rom. Rose 934 And it [the bow] was peynted wel and thwiten, And over-al diapred and writen With ladies and with bacheleres. ? c 1475 Sqr. lowe Degre 744 With damaske white, and asure blewe, Wel dyapred with lyllyes newe. 1680 Morden Geog. Rect. (1685) 150 Excellent Artists in Diapring Linnen-Cloaths. 1842–76 Gwilt Archit. §302 The practice of diapering the walls, whereof an instance occurs in Westminster Abbey. |
2. transf. and fig. To adorn with diversely coloured details; to variegate.
| 1592 Greene Upst. Courtier, Fragrante flowres that diapred this valley. 1603 Florio Montaigne ii. xii. (1632) 300 The wheelings..of the celestiall bodies diapred in colours. 1613 W. Browne Brit. Past. i. i, The rayes Wherewith the sunne doth diaper the seas. 1665 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 380 Such flowers as Nature usually diapers the Earth with. 1862 Sala Seven Sons I. ix. 209 Tall chimneys, from whose tops smoke curled and diapered the woodland distance. 1865 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. IX. xx. v. 97 Six coffee-cups, very pretty, well diapered, and tricked-out with all the little embellishments which increase their value. |
3. intr. To do diaper-work; to flourish.
| 1573 Art of Limming 8 How to florishe or diaper with a pensel over silver or goulde. Ibid. (1588) 8 If thou wilt diaper upon silver, take Cerius with a pensill and draw or florish what thou wilt over thy silver. 1634 Peacham Gentl. Exerc. i. xiv. 46 If you Diaper upon folds, let your worke be broken. |