Learn English – Meaning and origin of the phrase”on the tapis”

meaning

In a letter to Winston Churchill in 1917 was used the phrase "on the tapis". What does that mean?

"I hear that a new order of Knighthood is on the tapis –O.M.G.- (Oh! My God!)–Shower it on the Admiralty!"

Where does this expression come from?

Best Answer

The earliest usages of the expression on the tapis meaning ”under consideration or discussion” appear on Early American Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases:

1740 Belcher Papers 2:311 -

  • As I have such great affairs on the tapis here

1773 Franklin Writings 6.89 -

  • Bringing it all upon the tapis

The following extract from Behind the dictionary traces the history of the expression. It appears that the “tapis” referred to a tablecloth, that on the table around which problem were discussed:

On the tapis:

This expression was common in the 1800s,...and the meaning was "under consideration." Many of the attestations from the 1800s in Google News Archive have this meaning, with bills, resolutions, questions, or political issues being "on the carpet." (Those that don't have that meaning usually have the literal meaning, as in "She then saw a great stain on the carpet, which was subsequently found to be due to blood.")

According to the ODI, the word carpet in this sense referred to a tablecloth, specifically the "'carpet of the council table,' a table around which a problem was debated." This, in fact, is a direct translation of the French sur le tapis, since tapis could refer to cloth used for tablecloths or carpets (or tapestries). Linguists refer to this kind of borrowing as a calque. In fact, the partial calque on the tapis is still used in English to mean "under consideration." The ODI further claims that this meaning is also the origin of the "to be reprimanded" meaning of on the carpet and the now-obsolete "reprimand" meaning of the verb carpet: one item of business that might be discussed at this table was someone's unsatisfactory job performance.

As evidenced in Google Books the expression “on the tapis” has always been more common in AmE and its usage has decreased consistently in recent decades.

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