h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In Ireland and Britain, I have noticed that children are brought up to say 'ta-ta' and when they are older adults often say 'ta' instead of thanks... where does 'ta' come from? Is it gaelige for thanks? Or does it have another origin?

According to dictionary.com it originates from the late 17th/early 18th century and was derived from a child's pronunciation of the word thanks.

Ta-ta and ta-ra have similar roots.

:: My tar comes from marlboro, Kings 6 cigars or old holborn

>> Ta-ta and ta-ra have similar roots. <<

I understand that ta is short for ta-ta the baby word for thanks.
But I always imagined ta-ra was an elusion to a coronet fanfare such as royals receive upon entering and exiting. It's a Players word, probably dates back to Shakespearian times when actors would still be half in character and staggering home from the inn. It's hard to strut the boards all evening as some noble prince and not expect a fanfare from your fellows at the pub.

~j~

Hmm. I'm sceptical of HI's dictionary.com explanation. That doesn't sound like the kind of thing that could be evidenced satisfactorily.

Given that 'Ta' is more associated with Northern England than Southern - my guess would be Norse influence, from the days when it was the Danegeld. Note that Scandiwegian for 'thank you' is 'tak'.

So what's the links between ta-ra and good-bye?

It's what's left after you distil "oi"

'Ta' is Northern to my mind, but 'Ta-ta' is _extremely_ posh, the kind of thing Hooray Henries say to each other.

Although 'ta-ra' is pure Cilla Black.

Myself - I say 'tra'.

The Oxford English Dictionary just says that 'ta' is British colloquial for thank you (infantile form), and that 'ta-ta' is British colloquial for goodbye, said esp. to or by a child (19th C., origin unknown). It doesn't mention 'ta-ra'.

Regarding a 'fanfare', I've always said 'ta-da', not 'ta-ra'.

I agree with the Cilla Black thing, "tra"

ti dom

Shouldn't that be "ta dum tish"?

I've not noticed those phrases being used much in Ireland.

TRiG.

Getting back to ta and tak...

Swedelish for 'Thank you very much' is 'Tak så mycket', pronounced (very approxinmately) 'Tak sor muckye' - so you can see how closely it's related to English.

In fact...it's even closer to Scots. Note the phrase 'Mony a mickle maks a muckle' (similar to 'Look after the pennies and the pounds look after themselves).

Muckle = mycket?

I've been having great fun introducing phrases like this to my harem of Swedelish colleagues. They can pretty much understand the Lallans verse I throw at them.

That Swedish one sounds similar to the colloquial English phrase "ta muchly" meaning "thanks very much".

I always thought the 'muchly' was a latter day corruption of 'very much'. That's certainly how I use it from time to time.

Me too. Just looking at the sounds, not making any claims about the derivation

I thought it was more like 'Thanks (ever) so much'.

I wonder when 'cheers' started to mean 'thanks'?

When buying someone a beer became a fashionable alternative to actually paying them for services rendered.

~j~