Where did the word 'ta ta' as in meaning 'bye bye' come from?

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Where did the word 'ta ta' as in meaning 'bye bye' come from?

Question #64046. Asked by xyz123abc.
Last updated Jan 18 2014.

Related Trivia Topics: Linguistics Vocabulary

mementoflash
Answer has 14 votes

Currently Best Answer

mementoflash

Answer has 14 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.

"Ta-ta" meaning goodbye, which is used all over England; the Oxford English Dic. says this is "a nursery version of 'goodbye' used playfully by adults" and gives the first sighting of it in 1837.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/41/messages/198.html

Mar 29 2006, 8:11 AM

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Answer 1

Ta-ta in the Times Dictionary. Listed as 19th C and of unknown origin. And I haven't heard anyone outside a play say it for years. Ta-ra (often pronounced 'tsa-ra', yes, that's still in use here in Merseyside. Usually followed by 'then'. Sometimes by 'well' or even 'now'. Tata without the hyphen is a very big Indian industrial conglomerate.

Answer 2

Could tata, as goodbye, have come from the french "t'à l'heure"(can mean, see you later) and was shortened to tata (t'à t'à)? Seems likely to me, given that English borrowed much from the French language. Or maybe I'm an idiot lol. Well, t'à l'heure :)

Where did the word 'ta ta' as in meaning 'bye bye' come from?

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