Sc. and north. dial. Forms: 7–9 tait, 8 teat, tet, tett, 6– tate. [Origin obscure; prob. Norse: cf. Icel. tæta to tear to shreds, to tease, tæta a shred; also, fluff of wool, etc., a particle of anything.]
1. A small tuft or lock of hair, wool, or other fibrous material, consisting of only a few fibers; a small handful of grass, hay, or corn.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VI. v. 11. Apon his chin feill cannas haris gray, Lyart feltat tatis.
1570. Levins, Manip., 39/14. A Tate, fibra.
1618. Trial Marg. Barclay, etc., in Scott, Demonol., ix. (1831), 318. He was found … strangled and hanged [in his cell] … with a tait of hemp, or a string supposed to have been his garter.
a. 1774. Fergusson, Iron Kirk Bell, Poems (1845), 43. Auld Reekie’s childer now Maun staup their lugs wi’ teats o’ wool Thy sound to bang.
1782. Burns, Death of Mailie, 34. Wi’ teats o’ hay an’ ripps o’ corn.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxii. There’s a chield can spin a muckle pirn out of a wee tait of tow!
1856. R. Simpson, Covenanters of South, 332. The wool … was to be found here and there in handfuls, or in tates, as they are called, lying on the heath.
[In Eng. Dial. Dict., Northumb., to N. Lanc. and Yorks.]
2. gen. A small piece; a particle or morsel (of anything); in quot. 1722 advb. = ‘a bit,’ a little.
With tate of meal, etc., cf. the common Sc. a hair of meal, of salt, etc., in same sense.
1722. Ramsay, Three Bonnets, I. 143. Observing Jouk a wee tate tipsy.
1805. G. M’Indoe, Poems, Million of Potatoes. But to disperse them a’ in taits, Through different hands, at different rates,… I ne’er could wi’ be troubled.
1891. H. Haliburton, Ochil Idylls, 68. O’ winter snaw there’s but a tate remainin’.
Mod. Sc. No a tate o’ meit was left.
