Obs. exc. dial. Forms: α. (Sc. and n. dial.) 4–6 ta, 5 taa, 5 (8–9 Sc.) tae, 9 teae; 9 n. dial. tea, teea. β. 4–7 to, 5 too, 7 toe. [ME. tā, tô, shortened form of tān, tôn TONE a., when standing before a sb. (orig. only before a consonant). For history see TONE a., and cf. o, oo, a, ae, shortened forms of ONE a.]
a. The collocation the ta, the to, properly that a, that (thet) o, ‘the one,’ as opposed to the tother = that other, ‘the other.’
α. a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, lvii. 4. The snake that festis the ta ere til the erth, and the tothere stoppis with hire taile.
1387. Charters, &c. Edinb. (1871), 35. Betwene worthy men and nobyl … on the ta half, and … masounys on the tothir half.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 3978. Þi semble o þe taa syde & myne on þe tothire.
c. 1440. Alphabet of Tales, 181. Þer war a hate oven on þe ta side me, & þe shapp of hym on þat other partie.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, X. vii. 175. Pallas on the ta part … Lawsus resistis on that vthir syde.
1721. Ramsay, Horace to Virgil, 10. Bring hame the tae haff o’ my saul.
1826. J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., Wks. 1855, I. 128. Up with the tae side, down with the tither.
β. c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 176. Þe to kyng & þe toþer assailed it so hard.
1423. Rolls of Parlt., IV. 256/2. That the too half be forfet to the … Kyng and the tother half to hym.
c. 1425. Seven Sag. (P.), 3270. That to [error for that o or the to] raven was ful holde.
1495. Trevisa’s Barth. De P. R., XVIII. ix. (W. de W.). He hath tweyne heedys, one in the to [Bodl. MS. þat one] ende and a nother in the tother ende.
1609. W. M., Man in Moone (1849), 18. Tradesmen treade on the to side of the way.
1642. Rogers, Naaman, 193. The Angell gave him a bunch on the to-side.
b. Used without the after a poss. pron. (or case), as in his to eye, his one eye, the one of his eyes.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, IV. ix. 91. The quene … Hir ta fut bair.
† c. In phr. a to-side, on one side. Obs.
1601. Holland, Pliny, VIII. xxiv. 208. Turning his head a to-side.
1606. Choice, Chance, etc. (1881), 70. Lookes a toside, and swears at enery word.
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., 389. Winding atoe side and going crosse.
1678. Bunyan, Pilgr., I. 139 Then Christian stept a little a to-side to his Fellow Hopeful. Ibid. (1684), II. 67. He called you a to-side.
In part of northern England where the regularly becomes tĕ, tā, t’ (as tă fells, t’measter, t’titter oop caw t’udder, t’aud lad), to, tone, tother stand for t’o, t’one,’ t’other, i.e., the o, the one, the other; so in colloq. Eng. more widely, t’one or t’other, t’other man, t’other day; hence it is possible that a-to-side represents on-th’o-side; the northern ME. was o þe taa side, mod. Sc. o(n) the tae side.
