Todays Word

 A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

devil’s tattoo

PRONUNCIATION:

(dev-uhlz ta-TOO)

MEANING:

noun: A rhythmic tapping of fingers, knuckles, or feet.

ETYMOLOGY:

From devil, from Old English deofol, from Latin and Greek diabolus (accuser or slanderer), + tattoo (a series of hits, as on a drum), from Dutch taptoe (shut the tap). Earliest documented use: 1755.

NOTES:

They say an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. Well, an idle hand does a devil’s tattoo on any available surface, usually as a sign of impatience, agitation, or deep thought. The tattoo here is a homonym with the skin tattoo which comes from Polynesian languages (Tahitian, Tongan, Samoan, Marquesan, etc.).

USAGE:

“My neighbour, you see, is a writer, and a reasonably serious one at that. Three to four hours, I tell you, almost motionless but for the fugitive fingers tapping a soundless devil’s tattoo on the keys of his laptop.”
Jack Ross; Troubling Our Sleep; Ka Mate Ka Ora (Auckland, New Zealand); Sep 2009.