Sc. and dial. Also 5 tatht, 9 taith, teath. [a. ON. tað dung, manure, whence taða fem. the manured home-field, hay from this field, teðja to dung, manure. In Norw. and Sw. dial. tad dang.]
1. The dung of cattle, sheep, etc., left for manure on land on which they have been pastured.
1492. Act. Dom. Conc. (1839), 289/2. Þe saidis personis sall content & pay … for þe wanting of þe tatht & fulȝe of þe said nolt & scheip.
1545. Acct., in Paston Lett., VIII. (B.M.). Itm. for the tathe of ccvj Shepe at Beekham, due att Myddesomer … lxvj s. vj d.
1611. Speed, Theat. Gt. Brit., xviii. (1614), 35/1. These heaths by the compasture of the sheepe (which we call Tathe) are made so rich [etc.].
1854. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XV. I. 100. To mix the teath with the soil. Ibid. (1867), III. II. 534. [Geese] eat far cleaner than sheep, and, in fact, leave nothing but their ‘taith,’ which answers admirably as a preparation for the next wheat-crop.
b. (See quot. 1701.)
a. 1641. Spelman, Icenia, in Posth. Wks. (1698), 162. Stercorationem Tath … appellant.
1701. Cowell’s Interpr., Tath, in Norfolk and Suffolk the Lord of each Mannor had the Privilege of having their Tenants Flocks of Sheep brought at Night upon their own Demesne Ground, there to be foulded for the benefit of their Dung, which liberty of so improving their Land is called Tath.
2. transf. Rich or rank grass growing where the land has been manured in this way, or, by extension, where it has been flooded (water-tath). ? Obs.
1807. Ess. Highl. Soc., III. 463. All grasses which are remarkably rank and luxuriant, are called tath, by the stock farmers, who distinguish two kinds of it; water tath, proceeding from excess of moisture, and nolt tath, the produce of dung.
3. Sea-tath: a sea-bottom covered with sediment.
1796. Statist. Acc. Scotl., XVII. 70. Oysters are found on a strong clay bottom, on rocks and stones, and sometimes, though but thinly, in what is called by the fishers sea tathe. These last are of a very inferior quality.
4. attrib. and Comb., as tath-field, -fold, a field or fold in which cattle or sheep are confined in order to manure it.
1752. Maccoll in Scots Mag. (1753), Aug., 394/1. They were harrowing the tath-field.
1795. Statist. Acc. Scotl., XIV. 143. The spots thus manured are called tath-fields.
1825. Jamieson, Tath-fauld, tath-faud, a fold in which cattle are shut up during night, to manure the ground with their dung.
