"And there they fly, or die, like scaled sculls,
Before the belching whale."
(Troilus and Cressida, v. 5.)
A sorrel horse and the plant called sorrel are both French words of German origin. The adjective, used in venery of a buck of the third year, is a diminutive of Old Fr. sor, which survives in hareng saur, red herring, and is perhaps cognate with Eng. sear—
"The sere, the yellow leaf."
(Macbeth, v. 3.)
The plant name is related to sour. Its modern French form surelle occurs now only in dialect, having been superseded by oseille, which appears to be due to the mixture of two words meaning sour, sharp, viz., Vulgar Lat. *acetula and Greco-Lat. oxalis.
The verb tattoo, to adorn the skin with patterns, is Polynesian. The military tattoo is Dutch. It was earlier tap-to, and was the signal for closing the "taps," or taverns. The first recorded occurrence of the word is in Colonel Hutchinson's orders to the garrison of Nottingham, the original of which hangs in the Nottingham City Library—
"If any-one shall bee found tiplinge or drinkinge in any taverne, inne, or alehouse after the houre of nyne of the clock at night, when the tap-too beates, he shall pay 2s. 6d." (1644.)
Cf. Ger. Zapfenstreich, lit. tap-stroke, the name of a play which was produced some years ago in London under the title "Lights Out." Ludwig explains Zapfenschlag or Zapfenstreich as "die Zeit da die Soldaten aus den Schencken heimgehen müssen, the taptow."
Tassel, in "tassel gentle"—