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tasteless (adj.)

1590s, "unable to taste;" c. 1600, "uninteresting, insipid" (figurative); 1610s, "having no taste;" 1670s, "tactless;" from taste (n.) + -less. Related: Tastelessly; tastelessness.

tasty (adj.)

1610s, "having agreeable flavor, palatable," from taste (n.) + -y (2); in late 18c. it also could mean "tasteful, elegant" (from the secondary sense of taste (n.)). Related: Tastiness.

tat (v.)

1882, "to do tatting," back-formation from tatting.

ta-ta

also tata, "good-bye," familiar salutation in parting, 1823, a word first recorded as infant's speech. Abbreviation T.T.F.N., "ta-ta for now," popularized 1941 by BBC radio program "ITMA," where it was the characteristic parting of the cockney cleaning woman character Mrs. Mopp, voiced by Dorothy Summers.

tatami (n.)

Japanese floor-mat, 1610s, from Japanese tatami.

Tatar (n.)

see Tartar.

tater (n.)

1759, representing colloquial pronunciation of potato.

tatter (n.)

c. 1400, tatrys (plural) "slashed garments," from a Scandinavian source such as Old Norse töturr "rags, tatters, tattered garment," cognate with Old English tættec, tætteca "rag, tatter." Related: Tatters.

tatterdemalion (n.)

"ragged child, person dressed in old clothes," c. 1600, probably from tatter (n.), with fantastic second element, but perhaps also suggested by Tartar, with a contemporary sense of "vagabond, gypsy."

tattered (adj.)

mid-14c., tatrid, "clad in slashed garments," from tatter (n.) or its Scandinavian source.

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