taper [OE] In Anglo-Saxon times a taper was a wax candle. The name comes, with a change of p to t, from the Latin word papyrus, because the pith of the papyrus plant was used for candle wicks. The verb was first used in the 16th century to describe the action of rising like a flame, and this picture led to the further idea of something ‘tapering away’ from a broad base to a narrow point.