The Etymology of Tapas

Little known fact: tapas means "hearty meals for small people," a not often-used translation.

It was first brought to the West by Lemuel Gulliver after his travels. Tapas was a form of inadvertent torture by the Lilliputians who thought they were feeding Gulliver a year's worth of feasts in an effort to appease his grumbling stomach which consistently drowned out Lilliputian music festivals (such as Lillip Fair). After Gulliver found his way back home, he recounted this tale to Jonathan Swift, painting the Lilliputians as a violent people. It was not until many years later that the Lilliputians attempted to set the record straight with a series of novels detailing what really happened (summary: misinterpreted hospitality). Unfortunately, the only "big person" who ever read those books went blind because the volumes were so small, which is why Swift's chronicle of events is still widely thought to be the truth. This blind person, however, did pass the gist of the Lilliputian account to his wife and children after opening the first ever tapas restaurant, and the story has circulated amongst tapas lovers ever since.

So "tapas" is not in fact Spanish, but Lilliputian. My people have adopted it into our language, much like we have with "jeep," "multivitamin," and "hubcap."

Knowledge is power.