Tata

Part of speech: interjection, noun

Definitions

1. An informal term used to say goodbye or farewell; a childish or affectionate way to refer to one's father; an expression of parting typically used in casual conversation
2. A casual or playful farewell phrase often employed when leaving; a familiar and endearing designation for dad; a word signaling departure commonly heard among children or close family
3. A simple, affectionate form of saying goodbye; a diminutive label for a male parent; an informal goodbye expression used in friendly or family settings

Etymology: "Tata" as a goodbye is a nursery word, and its roots lie in the same baby-talk that gave us words for feeding and nursing. Its earliest recorded appearance in English dates to about 1823, and it is generally thought to be a hypocoristic, a pet-form or affectionate shortening of the kind children and parents invent for everyday things. The likeliest ancestor is baby-talk itself, the repeated syllables infants use when they try to name a breast or a nipple. English "teat" and "tit" belong to the same family of sounds, and the Dutch "tiet" and German "Zitze" point to a shared Germanic pattern. Some scholars also suggest a route through French "tette," which had a Germanic origin, and an Old English "titt," though these links are less certain. Because it arose in the nursery rather than in writing, the word spread by ear. Its goodbye sense is the surprising part: a word for a parent's breast ended up as a cheerful farewell, a sort of "bye-bye" that children and adults alike now use without a thought for its origins.

Synonyms: goodbye, farewell, bye, see you, ciao

Antonyms: hello, hi, greetings, welcome