| 释义 |
▪ I. tate, n.1 Sc. and north. dial.|tet, tɪət|
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 fibres; a small handful of grass, hay, or corn.
1513Douglas æneis vi. v. 11 Apon his chin feill cannos haris gray, Lyart feltat tatis. 1570Levins Manip. 39/14 A Tate, fibra. 1618Trial 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. a1774Fergusson Iron Kirk Bell Poems (1845) 43 Auld Reekie's childer now Maun staup their lugs wi' teats o' wool Thy sound to bang. 1782Burns Death of Mailie 34 Wi' teats o' hay an' ripps o' corn. 1818Scott Hrt. Midl. xxii, There's a chield can spin a muckle pirn out of a wee tait of tow! 1856R. 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.
1722Ramsay Three Bonnets i. 143 Observing Jouk a wee tate tipsy. 1805G. 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. 1891H. Haliburton Ochil Idylls 68 O' winter snaw there's but a tate remainin'. Mod. Sc. No a tate o' meit was left.
▪ II. † tate, tath, n.2 Obs.
Also 7 tathe.
[In Irish taite; but held to be a borrowed word: cf. Joyce Ir. Names of Places I. 246. Some think it derived from prec.]
A measure of land formerly used in Ireland, equal to 60 Irish acres.
1607Davies Lett. Earl Salisb. i. Tracts (1787) 229 Every ballybetagh..containeth sixteen taths; every tath containeth three-score English acres or thereabouts. a1660Contemp. Hist. Irel. (Ir. Archæol. Soc.) I. 339 Every ballyboe, quarter, pole, or tathe of land. Ibid. 349 Twoe tates of the three tates of Ballagh. 1842S. C. Hall Ireland II. 354 The lesser divisions were known by the various appellations of quarters, half quarters, ballyboes, gneeves, tates, &c. 1861Reeves in Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad. VII. 484.
▪ III. † tate, a. Sc. Obs. rare—1.
? variant of tait a. in sense ‘wanton, brisk, untamed’.
c1375Sc. Leg. Saints iv. (Jacobus) 328 For scho had bulis wilde and tate, Þat scho nocht trewit mycht ȝokkit be In carte, na wane, be ony degre.
▪ IV. tate
obs. form of teat. |