the.com/tarpaulin
the unglamorous hero covering everything you forgot to bring inside before the storm.
means A heavy, waterproofed sheet of canvas or plastic used to cover and protect things from rain, sun, and weather.
from A blend of 'tar' and 'palling' (from 'pall,' a cloth covering, ultimately from Latin 'pallium,' a cloak) — because early versions were literally canvas smeared with tar to make it water-resistant. Sailors knew it well, and the word even gave us the old nickname 'Jack Tar' for a seaman, since they handled these tarred sheets daily.
- name origin
- From tar plus palling, sailors' tarred canvas covers.
- festival flag
- Blue tarps mark land claims at Burning Man and beyond.
- art canvas
- Banksy and street artists paint protest tarps as murals.
- survival staple
- Bushcrafters build shelters from a single rigged sheet.
titanic wreck cover project — 2010 proposal to drape the wreck site at 12,500 feet depth in the atlantic
sydney opera house roof — covered with tarpaulins during 1973-1975 major renovation work in australia
fukushima daiichi reactor 1 — enclosed in massive tarpaulin structure after 2011 meltdown in japan