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Etymology and origin of the English word tat

Pronunciation

tat1 junk

Confidence
Disputed
Formation
Back-formation
First attested
1839 Brandon, Dictionary of the Flash or Cant Language
Ultimate origin
English tatty

Etymology

The noun meaning shoddy goods is probably a back-formation from English tatty (“shabby”).[2][3][4] Merriam-Webster derives it from tat "rag", perhaps a back-formation from tatty.[5] The OED, which records tat "a rag" from 1839, calls it of uncertain origin and compares Old English tættec (“a rag”) and the older Scottish tatty "tangled, matted" (1513), and takes the modern tatty "shabby" (1933) as formed from the noun instead.[6] That older tatty is probably related to the Old English word.[7][2][5][8] Green's Dictionary of Slang derives the rag sense from a Hindi word for a strip of coarse canvas.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A rag: 1839, in Brandon's dictionary of flash or cant language, which says that the paper makers get the tats.[6][9] The Oxford Dictionary of English dates the senses "rag" and "person in rags" to the mid-19th century.[4]

Semantic evolution

In 19th-century London slang tats were rags,[9] and Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor (1851) speaks of tat gatherers, rag collectors; the verb tat, to gather rags, comes from the noun.[10][6][3] The noun also came to mean poorly made or tasteless clothes, and a shabby or untidy person.[6][3] The current sense, rubbish, junk or worthless goods, is first recorded in 1951, in Sansom's The Face of Innocence,[6][3] and Collins dates the word to the 20th century.[2] In the 1950s tat was also used as an adjective, second-rate, as of a "tat show".[9]

Timeline

  • 1839 – a rag.[6][9]
  • 1851 – verb, to gather rags.[6][10]
  • 1951 – rubbish, junk, worthless goods.[6][3]
  • 1954 – adjective, second-rate.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (chiefly British, colloquial) Cheap, tasteless or badly made goods; junk or rubbish: The stalls on the pier sold mostly souvenir tat.[5][2][3]
  2. A tatty or shabby condition.[2]
  3. A rag; also, a shabby or untidily dressed person.[3][6]

tat2 make tatting

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Back-formation
First attested
1882 Mrs Alexander, in Belgravia
Ultimate origin
English tatting

Etymology

The verb meaning to make tatting is a back-formation from English tatting,[11][3][12][4][13] the name of a knotted lace, itself of unknown or uncertain origin.[6][5][2][11][12] The American Heritage Dictionary calls the back-formation probable.[14] The OED notes that tatting looks like a verbal noun from the verb, but that the verb appears later, as if formed from the noun,[6] and Etymonline allows that both may come from the same unknown source.[7] Weekley connected tatting with tattle,[15] and Skeat derived the verb from a northern English tat, to entangle, which he took to be Scandinavian.[16] The lace is called frivolité in French.[7][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

To do tatting: 1882, in a piece by Mrs Alexander in Belgravia.[6][7][11] Merriam-Webster gives an earlier first use, 1858.[5]

Semantic evolution

The transitive use, to make something by tatting, followed in the early 20th century.[3] The verb is also spelled tatt.[7][5] The lace it names, a kind of knotted work netted with a small flat shuttle from strong thread and used for edgings and doilies, is recorded from 1842, and the making of it from 1864;[6][5] Etymonline dates tatting to 1832.[7]

Timeline

  • 1882 – intransitive, to do tatting.[6][11][7] Merriam-Webster dates this sense to 1858.[5]
  • early 20th century – transitive, to make by tatting.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To do tatting, making lace from knotted loops of thread with a hand shuttle: Her grandmother tatted by the fire every evening.[5][2][3]
  2. To make something, such as an edging, by tatting.[5][2][3]
  • tatting
  • tatty
  • tatter

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  9. ^ a b c d e f Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  10. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  11. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  12. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  14. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  15. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  16. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
Cite this entry

“Tat.” Etymologically, 31 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/tat. Accessed 1 Nov. 2026.

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