Plural of tape; long strips of material used for sticking things together, or recorded audio/video on magnetic tape.
From Old English 'tæppe' and Middle French 'tape,' likely related to Old Norse origins. Originally meant a strip or ribbon, later applied to sticky tape and magnetic recording tape.
The word 'tape' is another ghost word—we still say 'tape' for audio/video recordings even though no one uses actual magnetic tape anymore! We upload to the 'cloud,' but decades of language habits mean we still reference an obsolete technology.
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