tat

tat

1. (international standards) ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for Tatar.

• Wiktionary's coverage of Tatar terms

• IPA^(key): /tæt/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æt

From Hindi टाट (ṭāṭ, “thick canvas”).

tat (countable and uncountable, plural tats)

1. (uncountable, British) Cheap and vulgar tastelessness; sleaze.
2. (uncountable, British) Cheap, tasteless, useless goods; trinkets.

   tourist tat

   • 2004 May 28, Thomas Sutcliffe, “Why Britart is a burning issue”, in The Independent‎^[1]:

     And it agreed with the editorial cartoon which featured a newsman doing a live report in front of a smouldering building and saying, "And it seems millions of pounds of meaningless tat has been lost to the nation for ever."

3. (countable, India) Gunny cloth made from the fibre of the Corchorus olitorius (jute).

Unknown. Perhaps the same as etymology 1, above, or perhaps a back-formation from tatting. Attested since the 19th century.

tat (third-person singular simple present tats, present participle tatting, simple past and past participle tatted)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To make (something by) tatting.

• “tatting, n.1.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2013.

From Hindi टट्टू (ṭaṭṭū, “pony”).

• tattoo, tatt

tat (plural tats)

1. (India, archaic) A pony.
   • 1879, Val Cameron Prinsep, Glimpses of Imperial India, page 206:

     And so each morning before daybreak I am up, and having dispatched my luggage on the backs of coolies after much noise and bustle, without which no natives can work, I mount my tat as the sun begins to touch the higher hills, and start on my morning ride of twelve miles.

Clipping of tattoo; see further etymology there.

tat (plural tats)

1. (slang) A tattoo.

• knuckle-tat

tat (third-person singular simple present tats, present participle tatting, simple past and past participle tatted)

1. (slang, transitive) To apply a tattoo.
   • 2016 May 5, Fifth Harmony, “Write on Me”, 7/27, Epic Records, Sysco Music

     Write on me / Love the way you tat me up

• tat up

tat (plural tats)

1. (UK, gambling, slang, archaic) Alternative form of tatt (“a die, especially one that is loaded”)

tat (plural tats)

1. Alternative form of tatty (“kind of woven mat or screen”)

tat (plural tats)

1. Some small thing, especially that which is exchanged tit for tat.
   • 1920, The Creighton Chronicle, page 294:

     The article seems an attempt at tit-for-tat; but there is too little tat, even in Bedouins, to provoke such a maze of tit as is found in “'Bedouins' and Nomads.”

   • 1999 May 18, D. Reisman, Conserative Capitalism: The Social Economy, Springer, →ISBN, page 122:

     [...] insecurity, anger engender the excessive retaliation of two tits for a tat that leads not to damping-down but to [escalation].

   • 2002 May 1, G.H. Spaulding, C-C-Cold War Syndrome Or, Remember, It's Break Ground and Fly into the Wind, AuthorHouse, →ISBN:

     At the U.S. planning sessions, it was not uncommon to hear someone say, "Just remember, when you're negotiating tit-for-tat, it's better to concede the occasional small tat to your opponent and keep the big tits for yourself."

   • 2006 08, Michael Riggs, Edicts of Ares: 13 Absolute Rules of Warfare, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 112:

     Not tit-for-tat, but more like ten tits for every tat.

   • 2011 March 20, Thunderhead, The Sacred Clown, Thunderhead, →ISBN, page 475:

     “Yeah...and a tiny little tat of a bottle of Grinness on his ankle...” As they rode, a warm-front chased the clouds away and the direct sun and warming air began to melt the snow.

   • 2012 April 17, Gerald L'Ange, The White Africans: From Colonisation To Liberation, Jonathan Ball Publishers, →ISBN:

     If that was a lot of tit for a little tat it didn't bother the French. In the absence of any firm policy in Paris, the military commanders in Algeria began promoting French settlement.

   • (Can we date this quote?), Pamela Morsi, Suburban Renewal, Oliver-Heber books:

     "Why don't you two sit out on the porch while I clean up this little tat of dishes," Gram said. Corrie argued for a minute, but Gram shooed her away and reluctantly we found ourselves alone on the porch swing.

   • 2021 June 29, Alexandra Ivy, Guardians of Eternity Bundle 2, Zebra, →ISBN:

     A little tit for a little tat. He just wanted to get his damned tit so he could be done with the nasty tat. There was an odd shimmer among the shadows, then the outline of Briggs appeared, his crimson eyes glowing like the pits of hell.

• rat-a-tat-tat
• tit for tat
• tatt
• tatting
• tatty

• AT&T, att, att., at&t

• IPA^(key): [taːt]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aːt
• Homophone: Tat

tat

1. first/third-person singular preterite of tun

From Proto-Uralic *tuktɜ, *tukta (“cross-beam”). Cognate with Finnish tuhto (“thwart (of a ship)”), Komi-Zyrian тік (tik, “cross wood, cross bar”), and Tym Southern Selkup тати (tati, “thwart (of a ship)”).^[1]

• IPA^(key): [ˈtɒt]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: tat
• Rhymes: -ɒt

tat (plural tatok)

1. (nautical) stern (the rear part or after end of a ship or vessel)

• tat in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (“The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN

tat (Wiesemann spelling)

1. Alternative spelling of dart

tat

1. bad

• John Lynch, Lenakel wordlist. (1970)

• IPA^(key): /taːt/

tat

1. third-person feminine singular perfect of ta

tat

1. father

• Hofling, Charles Andrew (2011). Mopan Maya–Spanish–English Dictionary, University of Utah Press.

• IPA^(key): /tɑːt/

tat f (Arabic spelling تات)

1. boulder, large rock, cliff, crag, precipice
2. stone slab

• Chyet, Michael L. (2003) “tat”, in Kurdish–English Dictionary‎^[2], with selected etymologies by Martin Schwartz, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, page 597

From Proto-Germanic *taitaz (“serene, tender”). Cognate with Old Norse teitr.

tāt

1. glad, cheerful

Compare Latin tata, a childish word for father.

tat m (plural tats)

1. (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran) grandfather

• (Puter) non
• (Vallader) bazegner, bapsegner

• tatta

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *tatь (“thief”).

• IPA^(key): /tât/

tȁt m (Cyrillic spelling та̏т)

1. (expressively) thief

• “tat”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2024

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *tatь.

• IPA^(key): /tát/

tȁt m anim

1. thief

• “tat”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU (in Slovene), 2014–2024

tat

1. (colloquial) Pronunciation spelling of "ta det" (take it).

   Synonym: tare

From Ottoman Turkish طات (tat, dat), from Proto-Turkic *tāt-.

• IPA^(key): /tat/

tat (definite accusative tadı, plural tatlar)

1. taste

tat

1. second-person singular imperative of tatmak

From historical name used for non-Turkic people.

• IPA^(key): /tʰat/

tat (definite accusative [please provide], plural tatlar)

1. (derogatory) Turkmens from tribes or regions culturally influenced by Uzbeks or Persians, or Turkmens speaking a dialect with foreign features and no vowel length distinction.
2. (dated) non-Turkmens
3. (rare) Tats, an ethnic minority in North Khorasan

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

tat

1. father, dad

• ezitat
• tatannimi

• Zajceva, N. G., Mullonen, M. I. (2007) “отец, папа”, in Uz’ venä-vepsläine vajehnik / Novyj russko-vepsskij slovarʹ [New Russian–Veps Dictionary]‎^[3], Petrozavodsk: Periodika

From German Staat.

tat

1. state