tap tap

English

Alternative forms

• tap-tap

Etymology

Borrowed from Haitian Creole taptap (literally “quick quick”).

Noun

tap tap (plural tap taps)

1. A bus or pick-up truck used as public transport in Haiti.
   • 1983 December 24, Andrea Loewenstein, “"What's Freedom Without Food In Your Stomach?" — A Trip to Haiti”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 23, page 8:

     We drive through the central city of Port-au-Prince, to my eyes a confusing mass of women selling vegetables and goods which they carry on their heads; beggars; dust; heat; and the brightly painted tap-taps (communal taxis), which are, after walking, the ordinary person's transportation.

   • [2024 March 18, “At least a dozen dead as gang violence spills into wealthy areas of Haiti capital”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     One was lying face up on the street surrounded by a scattered deck of cards and another found face down inside a pick-up truck known as a “tap-tap” that operates as a taxi.]